Prompt: Spun Dizzily (#89)

February 1992

Tracey Davis wasn't going to say anything. She wasn't going to complain about being dragged out of the freezing cold dungeons, to the equally freezing grounds on a Sunday. And she wasn't going to complain as she sat on the hard, but thankfully dry ground, with a book open in her lap as she ate a licorice wand. (It was at least better than being stuck in the Slytherin common room, listening to Daphne Greengrass boast about all the Valentines that she'd received.)

Tracey certainly wasn't going to comment on Violet's strange desire to spin around in circles. However, she did wonder about a few things. The foremost in her mind being, why was Violet spinning in circles like this, but Tracey knew better than to 's odd habits never had much of an explanation, least not one that satisfied Tracey.

"You're going to make yourself sick," Tracey commented, her Irish lilt barely noticeable in that moment as she struggled to snap off a piece of candy from the rest of the wand-like treat.

"The point is to get dizzy," Violet replied as she spread her arms out once more and started to spin like a top. Her shaggy, raven hair, which now grazed her shoulders, fanned out around her and reminded Tracey of a black cape. Violet's cheeks were rosy from her exertion and her eyes bright.

"Why?"

"Because it's fun!" Violet replied before dropping to the ground on her back with a large grin on her face and her eyes closed and she breathed a little heavily.

Tracey was quite sure that this was the happiest she had seen her friend in the entire time she'd known the girl, which really had only been a few months. And it made her wonder that something so simple, could make her friend so happy and feel so light.

"You haven't smiled much lately, what's wrong with you?" Tracey observed with a frown. And it was true, while Violet had thanked Tracey profusely for the gifts, even though she'd already written to her to thank her, the dark-haired girl seemed rather... subdued since the holidays.

"Do you think Professor Snape has ever refereed in the past?" Violet asked, completely avoiding her friend's question as she instead turned her gaze to the sky and started to trace patterns in the clouds with an outstretched finger.

"I don't think so," Tracey replied, knowing her friend was evading her question.

However, she couldn't deny that it was an interesting topic she chose. It had been rather strange to hear that Professor Snape had refereed the Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff game the previous day.

"Now, what's wrong with you?" Tracey asked stubbornly, ignoring the book open in her lap and the licorice wand in her hand, focusing instead on her best friend; the only friend and ally in Slytherin she would ever have because of her lineage... not that Tracey cared about that. In her opinion, it was better to have one good friend, than a handful of bad friends.

Violet frowned, dropping her hand onto her stomach and not turning to look at her friend. A sigh escaped her lips. She had to talk to someone about it, she guessed, but the idea of talking about something that touched her emotions in anyway... it made her uncomfortable. Violet had never been one much for sharing, even with Harry. Usually, anything she shared with him, was because he was with her and there wasn't much choice.

"Harry is upset with me," she replied. "He's barely spoken to me since the Holidays."

"Why? What happened?" Tracey asked with concern. She didn't quite understand the relationship between the Potter twins. To her, they weren't similar in anything but their appearance, and they didn't seem to have much in common. But it was obvious they loved each other, and would look after one another at any cost.

Violet sat up and gave Tracey her full attention after casting a surreptitious look around to ensure that no one would overhear them before spilling the whole tale.

Of course, she left out the part where she ran into Snape and cried. It was bad enough that Snape had witnessed that particular humiliation, she didn't want anyone else to know about it. Gosh, she could barely even look at Snape anymore without blushing in shame!

Although, that may have been because she had kept his handkerchief and she couldn't help feeling slightly guilty for it, as if she had stolen it. After she'd noticed that it wasn't covered in her snot, much to her awe, she thought she should return it. But the thought of facing Snape again after he'd seen her bawling like a toddler was too much to bear. And the more she fingered the smooth, perfectly black piece of cloth, the more she wanted it for herself, though she didn't know where that compulsion came from.

In all her years of sifting through the belongings of others, Violet had never felt any desire to take that which was not hers. However, that handkerchief was another matter. She had an uncontrollable desire to keep it, and rationalized to herself that... Snape had told her that she could keep it.

"Oh," Tracey said, playing with her glasses, at a loss to what to say.

She didn't really know what it must be like, to lose one's parents, especially at such a young age. Violet usually didn't talk about it, and now that she was, it was with a decidedly distant tone, as though she wasn't talking about her parents, but instead a set of strangers who'd been murdered.

Tracey wondered if that was because she was so little when they died. Violet hadn't known her parents, she didn't remember them, so how could she miss them specifically?

"Well I'm sure he'll come around. I mean... he can't stop talking to you forever. You live together!" Tracey replied to which Violet frowned thinking just how closely she and Harry did have to live together.

All those years... trapped together in the small and suffocating little cupboard under the stairs... it made her more than a little claustrophobic in recent years. While once she had been comforted to be so close to her brother, in the last year or two, the space had simply become too cramped, that she would sometimes suffer panic attacks.

The very thought of having to return to Privet Drive made her sick, even if she and Harry were given Dudley's other room. She never wanted to go back there, not after having been to Hogwarts.

Violet wondered if there were any way to change that.

But the thought of trying to tell someone again about what happened in at Dursley's frightened her. And even if they did believe her and took her and Harry away from her neglectful relatives, what if she and Harry had to be separated? What if they ended up in places far worse than the Dursley's?

"I guess," Violet said, shaking off her sad thoughts before getting back to her feet, not wanting to think about summer.

Closing her eyes once more, she spread her arms about her and started to spin once more, feeling light and happy once more, if only for a while. She'd never really been one who wanted to linger on anguish, nor to moan and cry about things she couldn't change.

Opening her eyes as she continued to spin quickly, the scenery around her blurring quickly, she smiled to know that moments like this could exist, even if only moments at a time.

TBC...