Prompt: Step Right Up... (#283)

December 1991

Christmas morning was cold. Violet would have found it lonely too, as all the girls in her dorm had gone home for the Holidays, but the fact that there were presents at the foot of her bed rather seemed to make her forget all about that.

Besides, after sharing a tiny space with her brother all her life, and then having to share the dorm with four girls, she found it refreshing to have a room all to herself. It hardly bothered her that she was practically the only Slytherin in the entire school, but for a handful of others that were staying too.

Though, Tracey had invited her to come with her for the holidays. But somehow, Violet didn't feel right leaving her brother all alone at the castle and as it was that special time of year that you were supposed to spend with the ones you loved, Violet felt that she ought to be there with her brother. Even if she was a scrooge or grinch where Christmas was concerned.

She'd always hated the holiday as it just served to show her everything she didn't have.

However, her face seemed to brighten slightly as she noticed that there were what looked like presents at the foot of her bed. Moving over towards the little pile, she stared at them in wonderment.

Picking up the smallest first, she stared at the note and ripped it up without reading it when she realized it was from the Dursleys. Considering how nasty they were, she didn't bother with reading the note, nor cared for the fifty-pence piece attached to it.

After tossing aside the strips of paper, she turned her attention to the next. She smiled as she noticed it was from Harry and wondered that if for once she and her brother thought alike. After opening the present, she nearly laughed as she noticed he'd continued their little tradition and gave her an origami crane. For her part, Violet had branched out a little and made a little owl and charmed it to fly when her brother opened the box it came in.

Turning her attention to the next present, still going according to size, she smiled.

It was from Tracey and wrapped in silver wrapping paper. Opening the long box, she found what appeared to be a set of three sour-quills. One electric blue, another neon green, and the last a sort of neon red.

Violet was surprised when she noticed that there were two other presents, addressed from Tracey's parents. Mr. Davis sent her what looked like a wand holster, very much like the one that Tracey owned. Tracey's mother sent a pretty arrangement of yellow roses, which were charmed to last a month.

After setting aside the yellow roses on her nightstand in their little vase, and strapping the wand holster to her wrist with her wand, she pulled out her next present. This one was from Hagrid and appeared to be a hand carved, wooden, Stargazer Lily pendant. It was roughly the size of galleon and attached to a leather thong, meant to be worn as a necklace.

Violet felt awe as she stared at the pendant, touching it with her finger. She could feel tears collecting in her eyes and her heart swell with warmth.

Though she wasn't as attached to Hagrid as her brother was, she couldn't help feeling enormously tender towards the very large and gruff man who'd first introduced them to the wizarding world. Pulling the pendant over her head, Violet fingered the pendant one last time, thinking that it was possibly the most beautiful thing she'd ever been given and telling herself that she had to make more of an effort to repay such kindness to Hagrid.

Finally, the last parcel was lumpy and wrapped plainly, and oddly enough, addressed from the Weasleys.

Violet frowned slightly, wondering at that. Though she knew that Ron Weasley was best friends with her brother, along with Hermione Granger, Violet barely interacted with them. While she was polite to Granger and attempted to be polite to Weasley, she merely felt awkward around them. The fact that they were in rival houses made it all the more difficult.

Opening the present, Violet raised a brow as she stared at what appeared to be a hand-knitted sweater in pastel pink and a box of fudge. She frowned as the color of the sweater as she lifted the bulky sweater from it's wrapping, setting aside the box of fudge, while staring at the V stitched in royal purple.

Though Violet had never been one for wearing pink (though she didn't have a choice as she had to wear Dudley's hand-me-downs), and she was befuddled that she would be given a present by a set of complete strangers, she knew that the fact that the sweater was hand-knit meant a great deal.

Someone had actually spent much of their time doing this... for her. That meant that not only they were thinking of her, but thought she was worthy of spending their time on. And she couldn't say she wasn't touched by the gesture, even if she found pastel pink a truly atrocious color.

Groaning, knowing that it would be very ungrateful not to wear it, she pulled the thing over her head before shoving her unruly hair back.

Well, at least it's warm, she thought. And warmth was something precious for a Slytherin, considering the dungeons and especially their House, was bitterly cold.

XxX

Violet was amongst the first to arrive in the Great Hall for dinner as there wasn't much for her to do in her dorm.

Upon entering, her eyes did a quick search, not that she had to look very hard for who she wanted. After all, the Great Hall was still pretty empty and Hagrid was very hard to miss. Smiling, she made a beeline for the High Table, ignoring some of the looks she got as she went, even from some of the teachers.

She was sure she didn't make a pretty picture with her extremely baggy jeans, and bulky pink sweater, with the large greying t-shirt she wore underneath poking out from under her sweater by several inches. It didn't help either that her jet black hair which reached a bit past her shoulders now, seemed to grow in every which way and half-obscured her vision.

Seated, Hagrid's head was still a good deal taller than Violet, but she didn't let herself be troubled by this. Jumping as she finally reached him, she wrapped her arms as best she could around his neck, beaming as she pulled away enough to kiss his cheek.

"Thank you for the christmas present, Hagrid. I love it!" she smiled as she let him go and touched her feet back down to the floor.

Hagrid's cheeks turned pink as he looked at her a bit bashfully, his smile embarrassed as his eyes became glassy. "Was nothin' special-"

"It's beautiful! The most beautiful thing I've ever gotten!" Violet smiled, pulling the pendant out from beneath her pink sweater and holding it gingerly between her thumb and index finger, running her index finger over the smooth and polished wood.

Real tears shone in Hagrid's eyes then as he stared at her. Violet felt her stomach knot itself as she felt sentiment clawing at her chest. She hadn't meant to make Hagrid sad. However, she had a feeling that his tears were more from joy than sadness, much like her own earlier.

Not wishing to become emotional in front of so many people, as her tears were something she hid from even Harry who was the only one who ever got to see her sweet side, she looked past Hagrid where McGonagall was staring at her with a slight upturn of her lips. But her eyes too appeared somewhat sad.

On her other side was the Headmaster who wished her a Happy Christmas and told her how pleasant it was to receive a visit from her at the staff table.

Violet merely grinned in turn and wished him a Happy Christmas as well before she spotted her brother making his way into the Great Hall with the Weasley clan. Telling goodbye to the teachers, and thanking Hagrid once more, she skipped towards her brother.

"Hey, girly Potter's got a Weasley sweater too!" one of the twins stated as Violet threw her arms around her brother, noticing immediately that he was wearing an emerald green sweater, like her own, with an H on it.

"Did you like your little owl?" Violet asked. This year, she'd made him an owl instead of a crane because of Hedwig. While Hagrid had gotten the owl for them to share, Harry more or less was the real owner as Violet wasn't really one for taking care of pets. Harry on the other hand had loved Hedwig the moment he'd laid eyes on her.

"Yeah. How did you get it to fly?" he asked as they started to make their way towards the Gryffindor table as Violet didn't have anyone to sit with at her own House.

"I asked Professor Flitwick to teach me a to charm it a couple weeks ago," Violet replied as they sat down to eat and started to tell each other about the gifts they respectively received.

Violet frowned as Harry finished. "Wait. You got an invisibility cloak? That belonged to our... father?"

Harry nodded, looking nervous as the Weasley's continued to happily interact around them. He gave Violet an apologetic and almost guilty expression at the fact that he'd been left the cloak, meanwhile she'd gotten nothing special from their parents.

Though he knew Violet was capable of a lot of love, she had a tendency to be aloof.

Growing up, when it came to their parents, Violet never seemed to show as much interest as Harry did and she never really seemed interested in talking about them. When they'd been told the truth about what happened to their parents... Violet hadn't really reacted much. To her, it was like hearing about complete strangers and she was numb to it.

Except for the burning she felt in her chest, but she ignored the feeling, preferring to shove it down and pretend it didn't exist.

"Yeah... but we could share it-"

Violet didn't say anything to that, merely choosing to turn away and shrug her shoulders.

"That's okay Harry. You were meant to have it," Violet stated, ignoring the stung feeling she felt that she hadn't gotten anything special from their parents before telling herself she shouldn't care. After all, weren't these people strangers, even if they had sacrificed themselves for Harry and herself?

"But-"

"No, Harry. It's yours and I really DON'T want it," Violet stated firmly, her conviction getting stronger as she ignored the thought that her parents seemed to have loved Harry more.

XxX

Violet didn't know what she was doing there, or why she agreed to go. She was already on edge, sneaking out past curfew and hiding underneath the invisibility cloak with her brother.

By the time they finally found the stupid mirror they were looking for and were standing before it, Violet couldn't help feeling that it was a monumental waste of her time. Though, the mirror was impressive but for some reason she kept picturing a fun-house mirror. After all, it had to be some kind of trick right?

"I don't see anything," Violet stated monotonously, as she stood just behind Harry.

"Maybe you have to stand where I am; here, stand right here," Harry instructed, moving off to the side and allowing Violet to stand in the middle before the mirror. In her head, for some reason she kept picturing some large and boisterous carny crying, 'Step right up and witness the magical mirror that's a gateway to viewing the dead!'

Violet felt her heart skip a beat as figures started to appear behind her. She felt her chest tightening as she approached the mirror more closely to get a better look after checking to see that there was no one behind her.

It wasn't long before two figures made themselves visible and clear. One a very beautiful woman with red hair and eyes just like her and Harry; the other was a man, with messy back hair and who looked exactly like Harry but for a few slight differences.

Violet felt her stomach twisting as she saw how happy they looked as they beamed at her. And there, just beyond the man who was her father, she could see Harry. Harry looking healthy, and not small for his age. Harry, without a scar on his head, and looking happy.

"This isn't real Harry," Violet stated, feeling the familiar burn in her heart as she ignored the tightening in her throat.

She turned away from the mirror, unable to stand looking at it any longer.

"But-"

"No Harry. It's… this is some trick or mirage... a fantasy. It isn't real! Our parents are dead, Harry, and nothing is ever going to bring them back, or make the past eleven years disappear," Violet stated bluntly and almost harshly, hating the hurt look in her brother's green eyes. "Don't waste time dreaming for something that's never going to happen," Violet stated, wishing to comfort her brother but knowing he was too hurt with her at the moment to accept it.

"I'm sorry, Harry," she whispered, before leaving, not caring that she didn't have the cloak to hide her as she tried to make her way back down to her dorm.

Tears had sprouted in her eyes as the image of Harry, staring at her like she'd just stabbed him in the heart, engraved itself in her memory.

Once more, her chest burned as she thought of the mirror and as she continued to mechanically make her way quickly through the dark. Finally she was able to identify what it was. It was a dark and bitter emotion that she could almost taste. It seemed to go beyond any anger she might temporarily feel and had it's roots dug deep inside her.

It was resentment... resentment at her parents for leaving them. For giving up their lives and leaving them to the Dursleys. For not being there for the past ten years of their lives. For not being there for every Halloween, Christmas and birthday. For not taking care of them. For failing to protect them and keep them safe.

For giving Harry that painful longing. For being complete strangers to her.

It wasn't until she slammed hard into something solid, which groaned on impact and caused her to fall on her backside, that she realized that she'd been running. Wiping her eyes which were muddled by tears, she looked up at what had caused her to fall and found that even in the dark, she recognized her Head of House.

The glare on his face disappeared as he noticed her tears and labored breathing.

"Miss Potter?" he questioned, "What are you doing out at this hour?"

He asked as she tried to calm her breathing. But it was useless as she burst into sobs, drawing her knees to her chest and burying her face in her knees, wishing to hide her shame. She couldn't even remember the last time she'd cried, much less bawled like this and she detested how it made her feel like a baby.

With her arms wrapped around her knees and her face hidden in their depths, she started to unconsciously rock herself as she continued to cry. She didn't know what Snape was doing or thought, but she wished she could just disappear as she continued to attempt to stop her bawling but she just couldn't no matter how hard she tried.

Violet wasn't sure how long she sat there. It felt like an eternity before she was able to get ahold of herself. Peeking out from beneath her arms after stealthily wiping her tears away on her sleeves, she was startled to find that Snape was crouching down so that he was almost level with her and staring at her with a look that was impossible for her to discern.

"Here," he stated simply, holding out a black handkerchief to her.

With cheeks that were flaming red, Violet took the proffered item, using it to wipe away the snot and residue wetness on her cheeks. Her eyes felt swollen and she was sure her nostrils were as red as her cheeks.

"What happened, Miss Potter?" he asked, his tone cold but with what sounded like fury as he got to his feet. Violet didn't know how fury could sound cold. "Did someone hurt you?" he asked, his tone menacing, which somehow Violet was certain was not meant for her but at some unknown, imaginary person.

She merely shook her head, too ashamed to speak as her cheeks continued to burn. While she hated that she'd cried, she hated it even more that someone had been witness to it.

She allowed her hair to flop in her face and half-hid her eyes.

"Tell me what happened to put you in this state," Snape snapped, his patience apparently worn thin.

"I," her throat was sore and raw. It sounded like she'd gargled glass. Clearing her throat, she tried again, not able to look at Snape as she hugged her knees tighter to herself and lowered her gaze. "I saw my parents... they were in this mirror... but I know it's not real-"

Her voice was small and she was sure that if the hall hadn't been so quiet, he probably wouldn't have heard a word she said.

A sigh escaped her Head of House. "I see."

For a while they remained silent and unmoving, Violet feeling strangely hollow. Distantly, she wondered if she were a terrible person for being so angry and resentful towards her parents.

"Come, Miss Potter. It's long past the time you should be in bed."

Violet nodded, getting to her feet and keeping her eyes low as they made their way towards Slytherin. She didn't look up once until she was before the entrance to Slytherin and even then when she turned to Snape, she didn't look up at him. Her cheeks flamed red as she extended the black kerchief she still clutched in her hand to him.

"Keep it."

She nodded her head, wondering why she was dumb enough to think he'd want the snotty piece of cloth back.

"Good night Professor," she whispered, before disappearing inside, wishing she could really disappear.

TBC...

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