Disclaimer - I don't own Harry Potter.
Harry's smiled as she and his wife, Hermione, watched their children, Miranda and Anastasia sitting and playing with their grandparents. The two little girls were petite like their mother, and they had her amazing complexion. They had Hermione's face when his wife was their age, but they had his green eyes, and their hair was slightly darker than their mothers.
But as he watched his family with deep love, Harry felt a melancholic sadness. He turned to Hermione, but he saw his wife staring at him sadly.
"You're thinking of her, aren't you?" She whispered.
Harry nodded. "Hard not to, this time of year," he sighed sadly. "In the Cupboard…. I've got to get outside, get some fresh air," he stood up abruptly, and stepped outside, not seeing his wife's sad gaze.
Emma and Dan Granger looked at each other. They had known Harry for years, but they knew that there was something about Christmas that always got to him, and hurt him. And while Hermione never really spoke about it, Harry was more closed off. Dan stood up and touched his wife's shoulder before he smiled at his granddaughters and strode out after Harry. It was cold outside, but both men were dressed warmly. Dan found Harry standing, looking up at the stars, and while he couldn't see his son in laws' face, he could tell Harry was in pain.
"Harry?" Dan said. "Are you okay?"
Harry turned and he put on a smile. "Yeah, I'm fine," he smiled.
Dan sent him a sceptical look, and Harry sagged. "I'm not fine. Christmas is a happy time for me since I've got Anastasia and Miranda, but…. it's still hard because she isn't around."
"She?" Dan repeated; the irrational part of his mind wandering if Harry was seeing someone else behind Hermione's back, but that didn't make sense since he had noticed the looks Hermione sent him. She clearly knew what the issue was, but he was confused.
"Violet," Harry's mouth said the name as if it was hard to get the name out. "My twin sister."
"Oh," Dan knew he hadn't met this Violet; now he thought of it, he vaguely remembered Hermione talking about the Potter twins. "Is she dead?" He asked before he winced at the tactless way he'd just spoken. It was just they'd never met this Violet.
Harry flinched himself. "I don't know, I haven't seen her for years," his voice warbled with emotion.
"What happened?" Dan whispered.
Harry sighed and sat down on the garden bench. Dan sat down with him. It took a few moments for the younger man to speak. "As you know, I lost my parents, well we both did, and we grew up together. We had nobody else; the Dursleys," Harry grimaced at the thought of his relatives, "hated us, but we had each other. But that changed when we went to Hogwarts."
"What happened?" Dan repeated.
Harry looked down. "You know Hermione and I both fought in a war, yes?"
"Yeah," Dan's mind went to when Hermione, under potions from their ex-best friend Ron Weasley, wiped their memories and sent them to Australia because of a terrible magical war waged by a faction of racist bigots who hated anything they didn't like or felt threatened by. As a girl from a non-magical family, Hermione was a top target, along with others. In a way, he could understand her point of view, and since he knew she had been coerced to send them away, Dan and Emma found it easy to forgive Hermione, and they had learnt more about the war since.
Dan was so distracted by the things he and Emma had learnt since that he nearly missed what Harry said next.
"Violet joined the Death Eaters. She joined the other side."
Xxx
Violet shivered as she got into her flat, cursing as she tried to wrestle her shopping inside while she brought the bags into her flat, but when she closed the door of her flat, she sighed when she felt the cold in her flat. She locked the door and shrugged off her coat before she put on her cardigan which was hanging on the hook near where her coat was, and she went to the thermostat and she turned it on before taking out her wand and casting a warming charm over herself. After she put her shopping away, sighing at the meagre amount of food she had, Violet sagged even more since this was going to be a horrible Christmas, but because she usually ate her Christmas dinner at the Salvation army's, she didn't have to worry about things like buying a turkey and a Christmas pudding.
Christmas was one of the loneliest times of the year for Violet, but she hung around pubs and clubs in the hopes of getting herself drunk and being around other people so she didn't go mad although she never allowed herself to become attached; she had made the mistake of doing that once, and it had led to this, where her life was ruined forever.
Tomorrow was Christmas Eve, and she would do another few hours of cleaning to support herself because her other...activities didn't pay the bills, and because she needed to avoid the Ministry and she would come back here, and in the morning she would go and get her Christmas dinner to be with other people. She didn't have a husband, or children to support. She was too shattered emotionally and spiritually and so she didn't want to spread it to anybody else.
Violet walked to the living room and turned on the television before she went to the kitchen, and she made herself some beans on toast, her nose wrinkling at the smell of the beans bubbling away as she put her bread in the toaster. Once she was finished, Violet went to the living room with her dinner on a tray, and she slowly ate her food as she watched the news, not really taking any of it in. She didn't give a toss about politics, or the economy unless it really impacted her life.
Sometimes it did.
Violet looked around her flat as she often did, feeling sorry for herself but she had nobody but herself to blame. Her eyes fell on a framed picture tucked neatly away in a corner. The sight of the picture, as usual, didn't fail to depress her. Tears rose to her eyes and she sniffed, but she carried on eating and once she washed up, ingrained habits telling her to clean up right now, she made herself a mug of tea to steady her nerves, but she made it as bitter as she could. It suited her mood.
She walked back into the living room and lifted the little photograph up. It showed herself as a child, wearing old, threadbare, secondhand clothes near a boy with baggier clothes that were much too big for his thin, wiry frame. Both of them had black hair and green eyes, thin and pale-faced, but they were smiling and holding each other, with love in their eyes. Violet remembered when the picture was taken, it was two years before everything began changing for them both, and they went their own paths, and as she looked at the boy, she smiled sadly as she remembered how they'd bunked off school and taken the picture in Little Whinging. Back then they had been inseparable and they'd done everything together. How different from now, after all these years Violet's mouth wobbled and she started sobbing.
"An-another year, gone, Harry," she whispered as her tears rolled down her face, putting down the picture, but none too gently as some of the tea spilt onto the floor, but she didn't care. While she hated the flat so much, she didn't want to mess up her own living space. "I miss you. I-I hope you…you're having a M-Merry Christmas, wherever you are."
Finally, she sobbed more heavily. "Why did I do it?" She cried, sobbing before she lifted her eyes to her left arm. Violet tended to wear long-sleeved shirts or jumpers. She couldn't bear to look at her left arm, for fear she would be forced to confront the horrific memories she had of those years, but truthfully she had been haunted by nightmares for the last decade now, so there was little point, but what was on her left forearm was a visual and physical reminder of one of the worst decisions she had made out of her own naivete and poorly thought out choices.
It was largely her own fault.
Her own stupid fault.
She had been so vengeful and now it had cost her so much.
Violet and her brother had grown up in absolute hell. They had been dumped on a doorstep of a family of bigoted muggles, who had hated her and her brother. She and her brother had been bullied, beaten, and mentally abused. Harry had occasionally taken the beatings meant for her, and she had been forced to treat his injuries. As they nursed their injuries, Violet had nursed a poisonous loathing for the Dursleys.
And it was not just them. How many times had they tried to talk to teachers, police officers, and others? How many times had they investigated…only for the whole thing to be waved off, treated as a misunderstanding? And all the time, the beatings and abuse had grown worse; both twins had begun dreaming of ways they not only escaped the Dursleys, but they actually wanted to kill them. As the years passed it had become increasingly clear that someone was keeping her and Harry there; they had found out they had tried to escape. A year before they'd gone to Hogwarts, Harry and Violet had tried to escape and they had found themselves back in the Dursleys' home. It wasn't until the twins turned 13, and they weren't under enormous scrutiny they went and got their brains examined.
And once they did…
Even now Violet shuddered at the influx of memories of them escaping before their future headmaster or one of his lackeys had interfered and sent them back; the twins had agreed to make them pay. But she had gone a different path. The twins were not good people, not in the least; even Harry was as unforgiving as she was, he just hid it better.
They both wanted to make new lives for themselves, but they wanted to make those who had destroyed their lives pay for it. They wanted the Dursleys to answer for everything they'd done, and while the discovery Dumbledore had likely modified the memories and minds of those people they'd talked to, Violet still wanted them to pay, and she wanted to make sure no more children would ever be mentally or physically abused since the price would be high.
Violet licked her lips and she rolled her sleeve upwards. There was nothing there, but scars in the shape of a skull with a snake protruding from the mouth like a disgusting tongue. The tattoo was long since gone, but once on her wrist was a Dark Mark.
Violet Potter was a witch. She was also a dark witch. She had been one of the Potter twins who'd lost their parents at the age of 1 when Lord Voldemort murdered their family and they were sent to live with their mother's muggle family, and the Dursleys hadn't liked any minute of it one little bit. She and her brother Harry had been enslaved by the Dursleys, who forced her to do the filthiest things imaginable (nothing sexual) but they had been turned into slaves, and she and her brother had developed a strong loathing for the Dursleys, and during their sorry excuses for childhoods they had developed sneakiness in order to keep two steps ahead - it wasn't hard, as the Dursleys weren't renowned for their common sense.
But she and her twin brother Harry only had each other. When they'd taken the picture, they'd bunked out of school and they had gotten the photos done and kept one each, they had sworn they would be there for each other for good as they had nobody else. But she had broken the promise when she had allowed herself to be led along, by the same people responsible for murdering her parents.
When they were 11 years old, Violet and Harry both discovered the answer to all the weird things that were happening around them. They were a wizard and a witch. They were enrolled into a magical school, Hogwarts. But they were sorted into different Houses, and both had a strong rivalry.
Harry was sorted into Gryffindor. Violet had gone into Slytherin.
And once that happened, they both made friends with the wrong crowds, although they were more of a means to an end. Harry had never believed in the Slytherins are evil crap, and despite his best attempts, Violet had still begun listening to the propaganda of the Death Eaters, spouted by her then friends, Draco Malfoy, Theodore Nott, Pansy Parkinson, Daphne and Astoria Greengrass, Flora and Hestia Carrow, and Blaise Zabini, among others. She hadn't believed in it; she was a powerful witch and a Half-blood, and she was capable of many feats of magic. But despite that, she and Harry had remained close, but there was tension between them both.
Despite not believing in the pureblood dogma, especially after meeting the portrait of Salazar Slytherin, Violet believed that wizards were inherently superior to muggles.
And she knew that Harry believed in that belief as well.
And then everything fell apart. Lord Voldemort returned and Violet had seen an opportunity. She had no allegiance to Voldemort or Dumbledore; Harry was the same; it was impossible to have allegiances to the people who had destroyed their lives, but at the same time she had been bitter and angrily resentful towards Harry because he had seen a ghost of their family. Violet refused to go to the Dursleys, and she spent her summer with the Malfoys instead. It was at that time she met Lord Voldemort, and he goaded her into torturing Pettigrew, the same man who had betrayed her parents.
And she did.
And Violet had loved it. That thrill of power surging through her…it was intoxicating. And then there were the Dark Lord's speeches of how she could become better than everyone imagined or speculated she would ever become.
Violet had listened to the disgusting wizard's speeches. She believed it, and she came up with a plan. It was immensely simple; after all, both she and Harry had come up with their own plans; where Harry had planned to silently kill the people who had destroyed their lives, Violet opted for a more violent option.
She wanted to make people hurt.
She wanted to go after the families of the people who had abused her and Harry, and wipe them out until their bodies were heaps of bloody gore.
And she wanted everyone to know why it was happening.
She would side with Voldemort, but she wanted to use her time as a Death Eater to get what she wanted. She didn't care about the philosophy, but she had wanted to gain the experience she needed to become a dark witch, and then, once she was finished then she would remove the Dark Mark from her wrist, since she had discovered the spell and experimented on Karkaroff and she would then wipe out the Death Eaters en-masse and then launch her own plans. She wanted to get revenge on a large chunk of Little Whinging, and she wanted them to realise who it was.
For a long time, Violet had envied her brother although she was never jealous of him; his prowess in the Triwizard Tournament was proof of that, and they had helped each other become better, and they'd grown closer together.
All of that changed when Dumbledore had taken her to his office when she had gone to see him after his encounter with the Dark Lord, she'd felt a spark, a stirring of jealousy when she'd learnt Harry had seen the ghosts of their parents; looking back, Violet now wondered if the old fool had purposefully manipulated her, to make her turn away from her brother. But at the time the revelation Harry had seen their parents had hurt her badly. They had seen him over her. She had refused to see or speak to Harry for months before confronting him before the Christmas break.
Violet had demanded he tell her everything that had happened on that night, and he had told her. She had lashed out at him, feeling all of her jealousy welling up inside her, and while it was partly anger bleeding through her since he had seen their family, another part of it was using it as a means to cement her place among the Junior Death Eaters and give the Dark Lord every reason to believe she was on his side; she had knocked down all of his attempts to calm her down, and she'd unleashed so much poison onto him. The sight of her brother's horror-filled eyes filled her with despair even now, but at the time she had felt…justified by her actions. After all, it was all part of the plan. She had reasoned when he realised what she was doing, then Harry would forgive her when he saw she was not going after muggle-borns, but the people who had caused them pain, and how she was making them suffer the way they'd suffered.
And over the year, she had joined the Inquisitorial Squad under Umbridge, and over summer, the Dark Lord had announced that some of the students who'd come to meet him at Malfoy Manor would be marked and initiated as a Death Eater.
And Violet was one of them.
Okay, she hadn't planned to become a Death Eater, especially after hearing about the lie that was the supremacist movement, but suddenly she had changed her mind, and Violet did not know why. Looking back, getting herself marked was a big mistake since it wasn't what she had planned.
And yet…
She had wanted it.
She had wanted an excuse to become a Dark witch, and despite wondering what she was doing, she had felt that becoming a Death Eater would give her the freedom she needed and wanted to make people pay.
Ignoring her brother's pleas to come back, to spend the summer with him so then they could talk and they could discuss their separate plans, Violet went and became a Death Eater. She was forced to torture and mutilate a muggle family; the looks on their faces scared and haunted her to this day, and it had been bitter for her to be congratulated by the Dark Lord, who had assured her that she would be truly great….
But Violet quickly discovered being a Death Eater was not glamorous. Okay, at the time she had considered it was just something to put up with before she went through with the next phase of her plans.
She had gone out on raids, destroying muggle families, and while at the time she had told herself it was worth it, over her next year, Violet and Draco, who'd been tasked with bringing the Death Eaters into Hogwarts and to kill Dumbledore, were suffering under the strain.
The generosity of the Dark Lord vanished after her marking, and he showed himself to be what he was in reality.
Lord Voldemort was a murderer, a psychopath, but she had already known that. She had never trusted him and she had expected him to be different once he had her in his grasp. He didn't care whatsoever about the mental torture he placed his followers under, and he definitely didn't care about anyone but himself. But it was not too late for her; like Harry, Violet had gotten into the Room of Requirement and they had used the room to discover more about magic, for their different aims. She had the spell. But she did not have time as the next two years would prove.
She and Draco managed to get the Death Eaters in, and she had seen Dumbledore's body fall off the tower while the Dark Mark was sent into the sky.
As for her brother…
Violet had almost forgotten when she had seen him last; she had fled the castle with Draco, Snape, and the other Death Eaters, and they had returned to Malfoy Manor, where their actions were celebrated before the Dark Lord announced his upcoming plans to take the school over. Harry wasn't at Hogwarts, which was wise since he was on the run and would have been killed.
Her seventh and final year was a nightmare.
Snape was made Headmaster of Hogwarts, and he installed the Carrow twins who were truly insane enough to give Bellatrix LeStrange a run for her money as teachers, and they had carte blanche to brainwash and torture whomever they liked, while the teachers who'd been there before sat back and let it happen.
As for Violet, and the other Junior Death Eaters…
Draco.
Pansy.
Blaise.
Hestia and Flora.
Crabbe.
Goyle.
Theodore.
Tracy.
Daphne.
Lily.
Astoria.
And so many others.
They helped.
They went around, torturing the muggle-borns and they enjoyed it. They didn't care about what they were doing, and they enjoyed the tortured screams of the children. But at that point, Violet was so horrified and disgusted with herself for letting her ambitions twist her into a monster, and more than once she had seen the terror on the children's faces when she met their gaze. The looks in their eyes filled her with sorrow and pain.
Violet might have wanted to become a living nightmare, she did have her scruples and it had made her second guess her plans and wonder if her brother had the right idea.
But what hurt the most was seeing for herself that her so-called friends were twisted monsters. They had spent their lives listening to the crap about muggle-borns and their muggle families and brethren, and they believed what they were doing was justified because they were the ones actually doing it.
And it made her ill.
Violet realised she had never known her friends. Not once. No matter how many times Pansy and Daphne had comforted her when she told them about what Dumbledore said Harry saw, no matter how much fun she had spent with Mrs Malfoy, Mrs Greengrass. Mrs Zabini, Mrs Davis.
For the first time, Violet had the painful suspicion they had used her. They had seen her loneliness when she and Harry had been sorted into different houses, and how she resented the Sorting Hat for messing up their plan to find a way of escaping Dumbledore, after Hagrid let slip during their shopping trip he was the one to leave her on the doorstep in the middle of the night.
And she had never seen it; she and her twin brother had grown up being abused, and they had become good at learning how to sneak around and find ways of avoiding being punched to death by Dudley and his gang, and yet she had allowed herself to become a Death Eater in mind gradually. She had swallowed their bullshit before being marked.
Violet had come to think of her mother…
And she was sure Lily would have been looking back at her in horror for her betrayal and how she had sold her soul to the devil himself.
For so many agonising months, there was no sign of Harry. The Dark Lord repeatedly summoned her, demanding to know if she had any insights into where Harry was hiding, or what he was doing; but Violet didn't have a clue where her twin was, and no matter how she worded it, the Dark Lord would punish her with increasing severity. She had worked out that the Dark Lord was becoming very desperate, and that meant he was becoming dangerous. She had planned to escape when she had seen for herself how vicious the Dark Lord was, but Violet knew it was futile since she had heard how the Dark Lord had the means of tracking deserters down and making them pay.
But she had begun to seriously consider it; anything to exorcise her nightmares, but only her desire to reunite with Harry kept her going.
Only she never would reunite with him, and she hadn't seen Harry for years.
And then, everything changed.
One night, Violet decided she'd had enough she decided to make her plans to escape into the muggle world and go back to her original plan to go after every child abuser that she could find and cut them down. Bleed them to death. She had become a Death Eater because she had thought it was the easiest method she had of becoming a dark witch and seeing her plans through. Using Thaumaturgy, which helped since Voldemort had her brother's blood in him, Violet removed the Dark Mark from her arm.
And just in time.
Violet was almost positive that Harry had done something to the Dark Lord and the Death Eaters because they lost their magic and they became as hopeless as their victims. McGonagall quickly took control while the Carrows and Snape were immobilised, and in the confusion, Violet fled.
She knew it was cowardly, but she had lost her magic and she was scared of the consequences. So many people knew she was a Junior Death Eater, that she had gladly and willingly tortured and injured other students, and the so-called Light would not like that. She would be lucky if Harry even remotely wanted to speak to her, and it was because of Harry that she had left in the first place. She hadn't wanted him to see her like that. She had dressed in whatever muggle clothes she had, taking her bag of gold coins with her as she had the ghost of a plan in her head. She would continue trying to find child abusers in all their forms and punish them, but she would need to lay low.
When she reached the nearest muggle town, she had gotten the coins looked at and she had gotten money. She had fled to London so desperately, and she had tried looking for a job, but because of her time at Hogwarts, she had neglected her muggle education which in hindsight was a massive mistake. Violet had begun breaking into places for money, and she had gotten herself this small flat while she mentally manipulated minds to get herself some good jobs, while she looked into her education.
It wasn't something she had wanted to do, but she had needed to sell her body just to support herself while she also used her magic to steal. Over the years, she had laid on her back or on her front, letting herself be fucked over and over again while she cursed the Dark Lord in her mind. At night, after she had eaten, she would lay awake in her bed, and she would fall asleep holding the only photograph she had kept of her and Harry. She cried herself to sleep virtually every night, and as the years passed, Violet had avoided making friends - the last time she'd trusted people, they had twisted her around and turned her into a monster, and she had put herself into college, and she had gone onto the Open University when she had saved up enough cash to pay for the courses.
Every night she would hold the photograph, wishing she had never befriended those soulless bastards at Hogwarts.
Every night, she wished she could see her brother. Violet was haunted by the last argument they'd had in fifth year, the argument which irreparably destroyed their bond…
"Why?" Violet spat at her brother, who was looking at her in horror. "Why is it you get to see our parents, and I don't!"
"Violet, you weren't there!" Harry said as he tried to keep control and calm her down.
"You saw our parents. What did they do, heap on the praise for their precious Boy-Who-Lived without sparing me a thought?" Violet sneered.
"Violet," Harry stuttered in shock as he listened to the vitriol coming from the only good thing in his life. "No, they didn't-."
"But you saw them, Harry," Violet didn't give a chance to respond, her face a weird mix of sorrow, regret, rage and longing. "I've been greedily trying to learn more about my parents-."
"Your parents?" Now Harry was the angry one. "They are our parents, have you forgotten about that? We're twins, remember? We lost our family when we were babies, and we have been struggling to live ever since. And what makes you think I haven't been looking for ways of learning more about our parents?"
"Unfortunately," The word was so unexpected that it surprised both Potters. Harry stared at her in confusion for a moment before the implications of what Violet could mean penetrated his mind. His eyes widened as he felt physically sick. Violet herself looked uncomfortable but resolute.
"What do you mean, unfortunately?" Harry whispered, shaking his head. "Violet, do you…wish I had….never been born? Is that it? Do you wish I'd died?"
Violet said nothing, her expression was full of regret, but at the same time…
He got the impression she meant exactly that. In that instance, Violet broke his heart for the first time. And their relationship would never be the same after that, because after Christmas, Umbridge would set up the Inquisitorial Squad, and she would be made a member. And she would take full advantage of the powers the squad had to make her brother hurt. That was the second time.
Violet let out a shuddering breath as she cradled her head, rocking back and forth as she looked around the flat she hated so much, and she cried for what she had done as she spent Christmas totally alone.
She had started going out and looking for abusive muggles and she had caught them, but it was not the future she had envisaged for herself.
Still, during the year she had done her best to redeem herself.
Cloaked in a disillusionment charm while her feet were silenced, Violet felt this was like old times. While her brother owned the Invisibility cloak which had belonged to their dad, and he had kept it with him because too many Slytherins would have taken advantage of it and they would never have seen it again, the twins had found other ways of keeping themselves hidden when they wanted to.
But this time was different.
With Snape as the Headmaster and so many of the Dark Lord's servants in the castle (her included), there were patrols that roamed the castle like a pack of vicious dogs. The students who'd returned to Hogwarts for this year wouldn't recognise the place, as it was now a merciless prison. Violet knew if she was caught or detected by the Death Eaters, then she would be punished and forced to answer many unpleasant questions.
She did not want to be found.
Keeping a hold of the handle of her wand, Violet made her way down to the dungeons of the school. She had been horrified when she had learnt the Dark Lord was making Snape and the other senior Death Eaters move the muggle-born children into the dungeons, regardless of their Houses and their years. Half of them were like her, abused and alone, rejected by their supposed families. It was not what she had wanted to do, but for the last week she had been making plans to remove her Dark Mark, but she wasn't going to do that without striking a blow against the Death Eaters, but if she could redeem herself at the same time…
As she snuck into the dungeons, Violet flicked her second wand to disable the numerous spells the Dark Lord had placed on the dungeons to keep the muggle-borns confined; she had gotten a spare in her sixth year and she hadn't told anyone about it, but she knew just using it was a risk.
As she entered the place, she wrinkled her nose while her heart sank into her stomach. The muggle-borns were treated no better than she and Harry had been when they were younger; they had no proper toilets and they were forced to make do with buckets they had to clean by themselves.
As she went deeper into the dungeons, Violet's heart tugged as she listened to the sounds of crying, sobbing, and unnervingly hoarse breathing. Many of the muggle-borns had been tortured relentlessly by the Death Eaters, and she had helped.
She was partly responsible for their pain.
This was not what she had wanted. Oh, god what the fuck had she done? She thought to herself with genuine remorse.
Still, there was time to change all of that.
Moving to a corner, Violet waved her wand and looked for any kind of wards and spells - and came across a number of them at once. There were monitoring charms in place designed to keep watch on them. That made sense - the muggle-borns would be watched down here, so they wouldn't have a means of fighting back. All muggle-borns were connected to the system, so if anyone plotted anything, then the Death Eaters' wards would give them tremendous amounts of pain, like a wide cruciatus curse. But as she was a Death Eater, Violet wasn't connected to the system, and she was free to do whatever she wanted.
Violet went around the dungeons, silencing the sleeping or near-sleeping students, and she began transforming the muggle-borns into snails. She placed them and their things in a large box she'd prepared for the task at hand. It was a large undertaking and she had to be careful since she wasn't sure if someone wouldn't come in under impulse and discover the muggle-borns were gone. She worked for two hours, and when she was finished she left the dungeons, and Violet headed out of the dungeons, to the upper levels of the school. She had to find one of the secret passages and get out beyond the wards, so she could create a portkey.
When she got closer to the edge of the wards, Violet placed a small crystal inside the box before she tapped the box with her wand, her mind trying to find the best place to send the kids, a place where they could be taken care of, but was a long way from the Dark Lord's control. She wanted to send them to the Burrow since the Weasleys would be more than capable of finding the contacts to help them - she hoped - but would they be able to cope?
Cursing her lack of any real knowledge about the fucking country, Violet decided to risk it.
"Portus!" She said before she triggered it. As the box vanished in the magical vortex, with all the muggle-borns, Violet felt her first steps in redeeming herself were underway. Now she had to get rid of the thing on her arm.
Xxx
Dan listened to Harry's story. The young man was speaking in a detached, clipped and rapid manner that told the dentist Harry was trying desperately to get the words out quickly so then he wouldn't have to break down and cry. At the same time, he didn't say a word since he could sense all Harry wanted to do was get it out and then he would speak.
Harry told him how he and his twin had grown up together. Dan and Emma knew how he had been abused by the Dursleys, but hearing he hadn't gone through it alone both elated and disgusted him; since one of the twins was a girl, what kind of abuse would happen? Dan had heard many terrible things over the years, how some twisted excuses for human beings took advantage of their daughter's helplessness, and raped them or worse, sold them. Would Vernon Dursley have done that?
Dan kept his thoughts to himself as Harry went on, talking about Violet and how they had grown up, and he thought he might break down and sob his heart out when he heard the way Harry's voice broke as he told him about how he and Violet secretly exchanged gifts in their cupboard. Tacky things like old coins, marbles, a pencil, a doll's head, an Action Man arm, that kind of thing. Hearing about their bond made him feel sorrow for his son-in-law.
When it came time for Harry to recount his Hogwarts years, the younger man seemed to stall as he described how Violet had been sorted into Slytherin and he had gone into Gryffindor; Dan had heard about the Hogwarts Houses, but his knowledge of them was limited, and when Harry made it clear that the other three-quarters of the school tended to view the Slytherins as pure evil, he had come to realise one of the reasons for the other twins' fall.
Harry made it clear what he thought of the Sorting Hat, the Houses, the divides, and the stereotypes, but he had done his best to be there for his sister, and at first, it seemed to work. They still hung out with each other despite Violet's unfriendly new Slytherin friends who made her laugh at others' misfortunes, and they still had that little Christmas tradition.
It was in their fourth year everything just went wrong. Dan had heard from Hermione about the Triwizard Tournament and how her best friend was put into it by circumstances out of his control, but hearing about what it had done to his relationship with Violet was heartrending. Harry told his father-in-law how Dumbledore had taken Violet to his office after intercepting her journey to the hospital wing so then they could be together; that in itself was just wrong even if he needed rest, and she'd learnt about Harry seeing the ghosts of his parents.
But as he told Dan about how they had gone to Hogwarts with jaded, cynical minds which were hardly surprising since they had both been abused, Harry told Dan that they had differing plans about what to do about those who had destroyed their lives. In the summer before their third year, they discovered their minds were tampered with; they had both tried to escape the Dursleys dozens of times, and from the sounds of it, Dumbledore and his lackeys had kept them in an abusive home. Both twins unsurprisingly wanted them all to pay. But where Harry had wanted to quietly manipulate public opinion against Dumbledore and his Order and his other associates, Violet had been baying for blood.
"Why do you think she joined the Death Eaters?" Dan whispered once Harry had reiterated how he and Hermione had gotten hold of one of the Horcruxes, and took it to the goblins to be drained where the Death Eaters would then lose their magic. "I mean, I know about your history-."
"Oh, she never believed in their philosophy; I knew that much. Violet and I both came up with our own plans to deal with the people who hurt us; I wanted to expose the things Dumbledore and his cronies had done while I lulled them into a false sense of security, but Violet didn't want to do that. She was the bloodthirstiest of us. I think she joined the Death Eaters so then she could go after them and their master before she went off on their own, and I also think she fell in with a rough crowd and got lost in it. She wanted everyone to suffer for the things we went through."
Dan couldn't help but shudder at the cold, detached way Harry had just said that although he knew it was true. In the years since the deaths of Voldemort, Dumbledore, and so many of Dumbledore's Order of the Phoenix, Harry and Hermione had both gone to great lengths to change the magical world around.
Harry had personally leaked information about the misery he and his twin sister had gone through, and he had provided memories which were published in the papers. He and his wife knew that much. Something that Harry said came back to his mind. "What do you mean, she never believed in their philosophy?"
Harry sighed and rubbed his eyes. "It's a long story and I need to give you the basics of magical history, Dan. A thousand years ago, Hogwarts was set up by four of the most powerful magicals in history. Godric Gryffindor, Rowena Ravenclaw, Salazar Slytherin, and Helga Hufflepuff. They wanted to provide a safe place for witches and wizards to learn magic so it wouldn't die out. Most wizards and witches in the past had gone to schools or were apprenticed while they avoided muggles. Hogwarts changed the world for magicals all around, and it provided an inspiration for millions of others to set up their own schools and preserve magical knowledge."
Dan listened, fascinated.
"But there was an argument after Hogwarts was opened. Salazar Slytherin wanted the children to be removed from their families, and we're talking about those born in non-magical families. They were in great danger as their parents were afraid of magic, and many were noticing their absences," Harry said.
Dan didn't like the sound of that, especially since there were bound to be some families who would shove the fear and uncertainty aside and still love their children. It was like that with Hermione; oh, he and Emma had lost count of the times the girl had frightened her with her prowess with a wand, but they were relieved she was a rational girl.
And he was not afraid to voice his innermost thoughts on that. "They clearly didn't do that, though; take children from families? And I can't imagine all muggles not loving their children?"
"No. I understand entirely, but you can see his point of view. Sadly the other Founders either didn't understand, which I find hard to believe since they knew how dangerous muggles could be. No offence."
"None was taken," Dan replied dryly.
Harry sighed. "I don't know when it happened, but somewhere over the generations, history was rewritten so then Slytherin would have been said saying that magic was better held by those with magical backgrounds. The purebloods. And from there, the sick beliefs of the pureblood supremacists were born. They basically believed muggle-borns like my mother and Hermione are no better than scum, even though mum and Hermione were bright and powerful."
Harry took a deep breath and carried on. "We found out about this dark page of Hogwarts' history when I was 12. The Chamber of Secrets was opened thanks to a possessed student after she'd found one of Voldemort's Horcruxes, a basilisk which had been mentally warped by the young Voldemort during his own time at the school and had begun attacking muggle-borns in exactly the same way 50 years before, there was a huge drive to learn more about the castle and the history built into its walls. After I killed the basilisk, Violet, Hermione and I went into the Chamber to explore it. Hermione wanted to see the place and Violet had been with me, and we both took down the massive snake. And we found Slytherin's portrait, and he was more than happy to give us his version of events which seemed more plausible somehow."
"In what way?"
"I'm not sure, but hearing it from the very person said to be the root of the pureblood dogma was different than hearing a secondhand account," Harry said.
"Fair point; it would be the same if one of us went back in time, and met the Bard and asked about his inspirations for some of his stories, what was on his mind as he drafted his plays, and meeting someone like Winston Churchill and learning about his decisions," Dan commented thoughtfully before he focused on the conversation. "So, if Violet was with you, and she heard the truth, then surely joining Voldemort who spouted this pureblood nonsense would be the last thing she'd do; he murdered your parents, she knew that. So why join?"
"I don't know," Harry replied, his eyes sorrowful and hollow. "As part of a bigger plan? Over the years we were at the school, Violet began gaining more of an interest in dark wizards, not necessarily Death Eaters. Not every dark wizard or witch becomes a Dark Lord, Dan. I knew she was thinking along those lines because she didn't want the magical world to make the same mistake with another orphan that Dumbledore did with us."
"What do you mean?"
"Voldemort. His real name was Tom Riddle. His mother was, well I don't think she qualifies as a witch, but she had magical knowledge and used it to dose a rich muggle landowner known as Thomas Riddle with a love potion. She died in childbirth after she had stopped giving Riddle senior the potion, and it blew up in her face. When Riddle was inducted into Hogwarts, he kept telling the Headmaster to not send him back. He begged the teachers every year, but Dumbledore refused to listen," Harry took a sip of his drink.
"And it was Dumbledore who introduced Riddle to the magical world, showing off his magical abilities. I think Dumbledore had, by then, formed an unsavoury opinion of Riddle before they even met, because of the people who ran the orphanage. They gave him a biased view and not the fact that Riddle had, like Violet and me, been bullied and had simply had enough and lashed out," Harry shook his head at Dumbledore's reckless stupidity. "Dumbledore never learnt from his mistakes, Dan; he shoved me and my twin on the Dursleys' doorstep in the middle of the night, and he left us to them. Not once did he bother to check on us. He had us watched by a mad woman who was 2 pumpkins short of a pie. On top of that, he knew of the abuse, but he preferred to ignore it. There are so many things that could have gone wrong, and Violet and Riddle are two examples of it."
"God, Harry. Hermione told us about what Dumbledore was doing to you two when you were gone for that stupid hunt, how he came up with ridiculous plots and plans that were badly thought through, but to allow child abuse and not learn from the dangers…," Dan said.
"Like I said, Dumbledore never learnt from his mistakes," Harry sighed wearily. "But I know this; if Dumbledore wanted us to believe in him, then he should have remembered that abused children always develop sneakiness to survive. Violet and I came up with all kinds of methods to avoid Dudley whenever he chased us around Little Whinging, and we always tried to stay two steps ahead of the curve. It wasn't difficult most of the time, but that way we avoided the worst of the beatings. Sometimes I hear people ask me why my sister became an evil Death Eater, but when you hear about what Dumbledore did, it makes you wonder why the magical world hasn't been discovered yet."
Dan stayed silent. He had heard of many abuse stories before, and he knew they never turned out well since those same kids would think the abuse was acceptable and do it to their own children. But listening to this, he was convinced Dumbledore was conducting a sick experiment, but he had died before he had gotten his answers.
Harry looked down. "When it was our fifth year, she kept breaking my heart," he whispered as he looked back to the past, "we had a meeting in the library and she basically said she wished I wasn't around because of our parents' deaths. But that wouldn't have mattered; our parents were still part of the prophecy regardless of whether they or the Longbottoms had more than one kid. I like to think she was merely saying it, but then there was the way she joined the Inquisitorial Squad Umbridge set up."
"Yeah, we heard about that," Dan said darkly. Hermione had written many nasty things about Umbridge, who was a ministry stooge and caused more harm than she knew. "But what did Violet do?"
Harry rubbed his face and let out a strange, low animal-like wail that had his father-in-law worried.
"Harry?" Dan asked, wondering if Harry was breaking down.
"She kept taking points off me for things that happened in the past; for not being around to take the Dursley's beatings, making promises that I just couldn't keep although what that meant I still don't know. After 5th year, our relationship was so badly damaged despite me being hopeful, and she still went with the Malfoys. In the summer between 5th and 6th year, Violet was marked as a Death Eater. I saw it through the Horcrux in my scar."
Dan and Emma had learnt a great deal about the war and how it was ended and so he wasn't surprised by this piece of information, but the looks of worry and heartbreak from both Hermione and Harry now made sense.
As he went through the last piece of the conversation, Dan picked up on something Harry had just said. "Hold on, what do you mean being hopeful?"
"Magical twins share a bond; during the year, I'd felt impressions of guilt from her over the year," Harry said before he sighed, "I got the impression that Violet did feel truly sad, and guilty about the things she was saying and doing but she still went out and joined the Death Eaters. A dark witch she might have been, but she didn't like what the Death Eaters did. She helped Draco Malfoy and Severus Snape kill Dumbledore. That was the last time I saw her, but I heard what she did over the next year; while Hermione and I were reeling from the discovery Weasley was dosing us up, as his mother seemed to think such a 'romantic,'" Dan raised an eyebrow at the way Harry air quoted the word, but he had to admit his son in law had a point since there was nothing romantic about love potions, "thing like that was more important than the wizarding world, Violet was at Hogwarts and she was helping the Death Eaters. But at the same time, one or two students said she didn't seem happy about what she was doing, but that's an excuse in the eyes of the magical world."
"You think she was regretting it?" Dan asked.
"I know she was," Harry licked his lips. "I felt her feelings over our bond. She was seeing that joining Voldemort was a mistake, and it went against everything she had wanted. I heard those words more than once in my mind. At the same time, she had a way of getting rid of the Dark Mark, and she seemed to be aware of what Hermione and I discovered about Voldemort, that the Horcruxes did not work and that if all Death Eaters died then he would. She seemed to know when we were doing it because she timed it perfectly."
"So, she still has her magic?" Dan caught the implications.
"That's the theory," Harry nodded. "I told you, my sister and I were devious. But we also came up with a plan after discovering that Tom Riddle had gone through something similar to us when he was a child, and over the summer we checked a few books and discovered the nature vs nurture theory. We did not like the thought of being part of some sick social experiment, Dan."
Dan winced. He hadn't expected Harry to be aware of his innermost thoughts.
But Harry went on. "Violet planned to become a dark witch and stop child abuse but she wanted to do it in a vigilante fashion, and she wanted the magical world to be given a violent shake of reality. I wanted to go further than that. I wanted to shove what Dumbledore had done to us down his throat, and show that the old wizard should have no right, no right whatsoever to meddle in the affairs of children and should never decide on a child's family the way he did with us. But the thing is, I didn't say anything to stop Violet, because I felt she had the right to be angry. It was so simple at first, Dan. And then she decided to join the Death Eaters. That was a surprise, and I sometimes wonder why she did it. We were always more independent than that," Harry shook his head. "But if Violet still has her magic, then she should have begun lashing out against muggles who are abusive and others who have dirty dealings. Perhaps she has, but if she has then she would need to be careful and keep hidden. If she's caught, then there's a chance she will be sentenced to Azkaban but I don't know what else they will do or say," Harry finished sadly. "But she began working to redeem herself before Hermione and I triggered the spell to end Voldemort for good. She snuck into the dungeons of the castle, where all the muggle-born students were being held, and she got them out of the castle. She turned them into snails, with a quick time delay spell which would wear off in just 3 hours, and she portkeyed them to the Burrow. The Weasleys were stunned to not only find a few hundred children of various ages suffering from different degrees of magical torture, but they were even more surprised when a holographic message from Violet played out. It basically said she had made a massive mistake, and everything she had done was wrong and she was hoping to make amends. That has helped in her case, but I don't know what the magical world will do if they ever found her."
Dan didn't know what to say about all of this. On one hand, he had just heard one of the saddest things he had ever heard, but he wasn't sure how he would feel if he suddenly met this Violet Potter.
Harry seemed to be reading his thoughts, which he probably was. "Violet wasn't a monster to those who treated her with kindness, Dan," he said. "She was just badly hurt and she was lashing out, and she made some big mistakes. She's a victim. I'm a victim. We're both victims, and yet everyone fails to recognise that. I have provided evidence that says Violet didn't believe in the Death Eater's dogma, and I've also shown the magical world our background and that Violet only became a Death Eater because of the way she was treated as a child. D'you know what's funny, Dan?"
Dan shook his head, suddenly unnerved by the anger and the feral madness that was suddenly on Harry's face. The subject clearly frustrated him. "No," he said simply.
"So many people claim there's not one witch or wizard who didn't go bad who wasn't in Slytherin. I never believed that. Neither did Violet. We both know that anyone can be brave and yet have the same prejudices as the purebloods, but so many people think that just because we went into different Houses, we would instantly forget we were siblings and we would follow the gospel in those Houses, so they would expect me to suddenly call my sister evil and cruel and automatically treat her like the enemy, while my sister would suddenly become a pureblood bigot. Why would we do that, forget everything we had been through, and the promises we'd made just because we were sorted into two different Houses with opposite views? It's fucking stupid, Dan. My sister only became a Death Eater because she wanted an easy way of doing what she wanted to do. She wanted to help children and punish those responsible for their abuse. She wanted to be a crusader, unlike the Death Eaters who merely wished to see the world go backwards. She didn't care about any of that crap, although she believed magicals to be better than muggles," Harry said, and the feral madness faded.
Dan wasn't sure what to say, or even what to think, but he agreed with Harry about the part where it was just unrealistic and more than a little stupid for the twins to suddenly change their personalities because they went into different Houses. "Has anyone tried to find her?" He asked.
"Yeah," Harry looked away, "despite my defence for her, the Ministry want her to be brought in for questioning and perhaps to determine the things she did, and once they get that they will decide her fate."
Dan frowned, hearing the anger vibrating in his son-in-law's voice. "You've tried to find her yourself?"
"More than once. I've tried using blood magic tracking, taking my blood and using it to try to track her down, but it did not work herself," Harry looked down into his brandy, "She knows she made a brash mistake and she wants to avoid it. I've also tried hiring private investigators in the muggle world, giving her the most recent photo I've got of Violet, and they've come up with nothing. I've even gone out looking for her with Hermione while you or Luna take care of the girls, showing people her photo, but they haven't seen her. She doesn't want to be found," Harry's face crumpled and he began sobbing as the years of not knowing where his twin sister was got to him.
Quickly Dan wrapped his arms around the younger man and held him tight. As he rocked Harry back and forth, Dan did something he rarely did. He prayed to God that Harry's sister showed herself, or they bumped into one another on the street. He wasn't sure how Harry's mental health could take this….
Xxx
Violet shot up, sweat dripping from her brow.
"Harry," she whispered.
She had felt her twin's sadness through the sibling bond she had always had with him, and she knew that much of her emotions had filtered through the bond for him to feel in turn. She had felt this sort of thing for years and years now, especially over Christmas when the twins would traditionally exchange those little gifts for each other when the Dursleys gave them nothing in turn. It was a tradition they'd done their best to uphold despite the stupid prejudices between Gryffindor and Slytherin.
Violet had never tried, not once to go to her brother even though she had the means. She had just been blocking off where she was so then Harry couldn't find her, although she had gotten impressions from him over the years that he had tried tracking her down.
She had hidden because, deep down, she was a coward.
She was scared.
She was frightened that her brother would be disgusted with her at best, and hate her at worse even though he never hid his love for her, but she was so frightened. She was not the girl Harry had known. But things were different, and as she sat up in her bed, Violet took a deep breath and considered what she had just learnt. Hesitantly she opened herself to the bond; she had closed herself off from the bond between herself and her twin out of fear the magical world would use it to try to track her down and punish her for her crimes. But now, feeling her brother's pain, she realised that perhaps she was a fool.
Violet closed her eyes and concentrated on the images and feelings she had gotten over the bond. She was surprised when an image of Hermione Granger materialised within her mind, and she gasped when she saw Hermione getting married to her twin.
Hermione Granger is now my brother's wife, Violet thought to herself numbly, sadness filling her as she realised that because of her cowardly acts of ignoring her twin and forgetting he would never have betrayed her by turning her into the Ministry. They've been married for years, and I've missed my own brother's wedding. Mum, dad, I'm so sorry.
Violet wanted to tear herself away, just to stop herself from feeling more grief, but she didn't. She pushed herself to see more of her brother's life, and as she did she saw him working as a curse breaker with Hermione, travelling to many magical countries, and at the same time she almost broke down sobbing as she saw him project memories of the abuse they'd suffered at the hands of the Dursleys and the way nobody ever helped them or cared about their wellbeing, and she did start crying when Harry's warnings Voldemort went through much the same thing, and if they wanted to still survive then they would need to screen the muggle world's orphanages, foster homes, and other places to ensure no other magical child went through what they did.
Harry's not forgotten our pledge to sort out child abuse, Violet thought to herself sadly. The images in her mind were vague and undefined, but then she found herself in a hospital room. Hermione was there, tired and lying on a bed, looking down lovingly at a bundle wrapped in a white hospital blanket. If she could have done it, Violet would have squealed in delight as she took in the child's face.
Violet snapped out of the bond, severing the connection instantly. She rubbed her eyes, too shaken by what she'd just seen to do anything. I'm an aunt, she thought to herself numbly, wondering why she had never felt this in the past. Harry and Hermione have two girls. I've got two nieces, and I….I've abandoned my own family. I don't deserve to be forgiven
Wallowing in grief and regret over her poorly made choices and decisions over the years, despite the good things she'd done, Violet wondered what she was going to do now, and yet she couldn't get the faces of the two little girls out of her mind. Now she knew they existed, and knowing how empty her own life was since she hadn't met anyone, not even for a one-night stand, so she had never become a mother and she'd never had kids…she realised she'd given up her biggest wish beyond doing all she could to make sure no other child was abused by anyone else.
As the thought materialised in her head, Violet decided to buck up her nerves. She knew she was potentially endangering herself, but at this moment in time, she didn't care. She had two nieces and she was going to meet them both, right now.
Getting out of bed, Violet grabbed her clothes and made plans.
Xxxx
The Granger-Potter clan were currently in the living room, too bloated and full of the lovely meal Harry and Emma had prepared. Hermione had never learnt cooking skills, and despite Harry's best and most patient attempts, she had only mastered one or two meals. It was a source of never-ending amusement for Harry that for such a bibliophile who'd follow every instruction to the letter, there were just so many things his wife just couldn't do.
Miranda and Anastasia had also come down from their sugar rush and were just watching the Wallace & Gromit short film on the telly. The girls were being raised in both worlds, and they'd reached the age where they would be trusted not to talk about the magical world.
"No, Gromit don't go to prison!" Miranda wailed.
Harry smiled at his daughter.
"Wallace, Gromit needs you, you need to get off your butt and help him!" Anastasia shouted.
Harry chuckled even as Hermione levelled him with a glare for laughing at her language. "Sweetie, he'll do it," he told his daughters. Didn't they know this? Hadn't they watched these films before? Dan and Emma chuckled themselves, amused by the girls and their youthful innocence and enthusiasm.
The doorbell rang, eliciting groans.
"Who's that?" Hermione blinked. Most of the people on the street were at home, celebrating Christmas with their families.
"Are you expecting someone?" Harry asked while he flicked his wand at the girls to stop them from going to the door. They had inherited their mother's attitude and she was worried they might decide they were old enough to speak to strangers, which they weren't old enough to do. Harry had not spent the last decade revealing the abuse he and Violet had gone through, to say nothing about Voldemort's own past, just for his kids to be snatched away by some stranger.
Luckily Emma stood up and walked out of the room, cursing the weight her body had accumulated for the last few hours, and she walked to the front door, wincing at the insistent ringing. "Okay, I'm coming," she called before she opened the door.
Emma was surprised when she opened the door and found herself looking at a woman who was roughly the same height as Hermione. She appeared to be the same age as both Harry and Hermione. She was a very beautiful young woman, with long raven black hair that was entwined with threads of dark red, framing a heart-shaped face that showed an elfin classical beauty, marred by lines of hardness that showed she had been through a lot, balanced by the perpetual look of sadness in her face. This was a young woman who had seen and endured a lot.
"Hello, can I help you?"
"Mrs Granger?" The woman said hesitantly.
"Yes," Emma said, wondering who this was…
"I'm Violet Potter. My brother Harry... is he inside?" The woman asked nervously.
Emma gasped. She had heard of Violet only in passing, and until tonight she hadn't gotten the full story of the young witch and that was why she was on the point of slamming the door in her face. "Your Harry's sister?" She whispered.
Violet nodded. "Yes," she said quietly.
"What makes you think I'm going to let you in, after hearing what you've done?" Emma demanded.
She and Hermione had talked, and her daughter had given her the story of Violet Potter, but while she was relieved the other woman had tried to make amends, it did not mean she wanted her in the house. There was no telling what she could do.
Violet sagged. "Oh, you know what I…what I did."
It wasn't a question.
Violet looked down. "Mrs Granger, I became a dark witch because I….I was so frustrated," genuine anger and hurt flashed across the young woman's face, "by the wizarding world's lack of common sense. I wanted them to hurt the way we did. And I know…when I die, there will be a reckoning, but please, let me see him. Please," she begged. "I can't bear it anymore; I need my brother. My family! Please!"
Emma was still uncertain. "Mum, who is it?" Hermione's voice called.
Violet closed her eyes, and she came to a decision. She slipped out her wand, noticing the muggle's reaction, but she handed it to her. "I'm no longer armed," she explained. "I want to see my brother. I want to…to mend our broken bridges. Please."
"Violet?"
Emma turned and found Harry and Hermione standing there, looking at the young witch on the doorstep in surprise. They had been curious about what was happening and why Emma hadn't come back and closed the door. Violet gasped when she took in her brother for the first time in a long time.
"Hello, Harry," she said, trying to be brave, but the quiver in her voice revealed her feelings only too well, and she wrung her hands together.
"I can't believe it," Harry whispered as he stepped closer to his twin. He threw himself at her, wrapping his arms around her in a hug. Emma and Hermione watched on, with Dan coming out, their hearts breaking at the sound of the siblings' sobbing.
Hermione watched her husband, her eyes watering. She and Violet had always gotten along, but it was around their fifth and sixth years their relationship became tense. But they were still amicable. Hermione had done her best to help Violet repair her relationship with Harry, but the girl had refused to listen. She hoped that their old friendship would happen. Violet might have caused a lot of pain, but she had given the Death Eaters a massive black eye when she had gotten the muggle-borns out of Hogwarts. Something Hermione was eternally grateful for.
It was the least she could have done considering what she had been doing; helping with Dumbledore's assassination, allowing the Death Eaters into the castle, going out on raids, torturing and killing.
"Mummy? Who is that woman?" Hermione jumped when she heard Miranda's voice and she turned and looked at her daughters, who were watching the scene curiously with wide eyes. For a moment Hermione wondered how they couldn't have made the connection, and then she remembered that Harry had all the photos he had of Violet locked up to stop himself from feeling the pain.
Violet heard the question and pulled away, her breath hitching at the sight of the girls, her eyes widening when she caught sight of the two small girls. They were virtually identical to their mother and their grandmother, but she could see hints of herself and Lily in them. Both girls had inherited their emerald green eyes from their father and grandmother.
And from her.
Violet turned to her brother, who nodded with a smile. Sniffling a little, Violet bent down so she was at eye level with the girls. "I'm Violet," she said with a soft, shy smile, mentally kicking herself for being so stupid she had missed these girls' birth, their birthdays, christenings and so much more. "I'm your daddy's sister. I'm your aunt."
Both Miranda and Anastasia gaped and looked at their parents for confirmation. When they got it they looked back at their aunt.
"Where have you been all this time?" Miranda demanded.
Violet had no intention of telling these two little angels about one of the worst decisions she had ever made, although she hoped she could when they were older. "I made a few bad choices in my life, and I had to go away. I only learnt about you both," she said. "But…I hope to be in your lives from now on."
Harry eyed her with a frown, knowing she was telling the truth. Now their bond was fully open she was radiating waves of regret and sadness. Meanwhile Violet hesitantly opened her arms. The two girls glanced at their parents, and after receiving permission, the girls threw themselves at their aunt without hesitation. Violet was surprised by her nieces' immediate acceptance of her, but she closed her hug and she began to cry harder as she held Miranda and Anastasia.
Xxxx
3 years later…
Hermione Potter handed her sister-in-law a mug of coffee and Violet smiled back as she took a drink. The two witches had fallen into this little custom while Miranda and Anastasia were at school.
"Thanks," Violet smiled.
"You're welcome, Vi," Hermione said as she took her seat. It was so hard to believe the pair of them had resumed their old friendship after everything had gone wrong. She and Harry had learnt that Violet had become a kind of child abuse avenger, who went after people who were behind child trafficking and abuse. She had won many battles by revealing the truth, but one of the biggest battles she'd had to deal with was in the magical world itself.
After revealing herself to Harry again, Violet decided to turn herself into the Ministry. Hermione would never forget the way Violet had steeled herself for the fight, and she did not need a sibling bond to see Violet was on the verge of passing out. But it was the right choice to make. The moment the aurors and the Ministry realised one of the most notorious traitors to the Light was back and was turning herself in, Violet was arrested. But while she had been charged, it wasn't as bad as people thought when they took into account all the good deeds she had done which far outweighed the awful mistakes she had made. A lot of it helped that Harry had already revealed to the magical world at large what had driven her to become a Death Eater in the first place, but she was more than willing to accept punishment. She spent the next 6 months in a Ministry holding cell, but luckily she was only there for short time. But her actions in the muggle world had earned a great deal of notoriety and there were many who'd wanted her thrown into prison, but again the disaster Dumbledore had almost created by exiling the Potter twins to the Dursleys had made them turn a blind eye. Many muggle-borns now worked in the Ministry since Harry and Hermione had made sure the Death Eaters lost their magic. There was a massive vacuum and now it was filled with muggle-borns.
And many of them had suffered from neglect, and abuse in the past, so Violet's confessions had struck a chord with them.
And Violet had earned a lot of sympathies and many of the muggle-borns she'd helped had ensured she got through her time in the cells in one piece. Many of them still wanted her locked her forever for her other crimes, but they had to admit if it wasn't for her, then they could have all died in the end because the Carrows lacked any kind of restraint.
But what made everything sinister was how it was revealed by Professor McGonagall, who had released the news of Violet's return to her predecessor's portrait, that Dumbledore had manipulated Violet into becoming a Death Eater, to destroy the twins' relationship. He had not used magic, but well-chosen words, for he had known how insecure the girl was about her brother's fame. For Violet, it explained why she had been taken to the Head's office. But it horrified her the lengths the old wizard had been prepared to go to for his plans to work.
Many had argued she could have done more, but by then Hermione and Harry had done their job.
Hermione noticed her sister in laws smile when she spotted some of the latest artwork from the girls. "Miranda did that only a few days ago," she said.
"I know her style; my walls are covered in their work," Violet grinned before she rubbed her belly absently.
Hermione noticed. "Violet, are you-?" She breathed.
Violet nodded, a look of nervousness creeping across her face. "Just a few weeks, now," she smiled.
"Vi, that's brilliant!" Hermione squealed before she sobered a little. "Who's the father?"
"I don't know. It was a one-night stand. I just felt…I just felt it was time I settled down a little bit."
"Are you going to stop hunting child abusers?" Hermione asked. Since she had learnt of the darker history of the Potter twins and the pain they'd gone through together, she could understand their hatred for everything to do with the subject, but that didn't mean she liked the way Violet dealt with them. Most of her targets ended up in graves that quickly became vandalised (by Violet), who was determined to never let anyone forget why they'd been buried in the first place.
"Raising a child is a full-time job, Hermione," Violet replied although she didn't say anything more on the subject. "But I know one thing, I'm going to do what you and Harry are going to do; send my kid abroad, not to Hogwarts."
"I don't blame you, especially after hearing what Dumbledore did," Hermione nodded. She and Harry had an argument about the school placement ages ago, although she wouldn't have called it that. Harry had never forgiven the stereotypes and the atmosphere in the school which made Violet fall into the wrong crowd. He didn't want the same for Miranda and Anastasia. While at the time Hermione had been in two minds, since if both girls were students at their old school then there was a chance they wouldn't split apart the way the twins had, but anything was possible and in the end, Hermione had to admit her husband was right.
But she was surprised by Violet's decision and yet she wasn't; because of the divide, Violet had been isolated and Dumbledore's actions hadn't helped. Hogwarts likely held both good and happy memories, but there were also bad ones for Violet.
"Don't mention him to me, Hermione, please!" Violet begged before she rubbed her still-flat belly. "It's strange. I've always wanted to be a mother, and I thought that desire was dead, but all the time I was too much of a coward. But those days are over. I'm going to be there for my baby, and I'm going to be a good mother."
"Well, since you're a curse-breaker yourself now, I don't see how you couldn't be a good one, and the girls love you," Hermione said.
Violet smiled. She had applied to be a curse-breaker, figuring her knowledge of runes and dark magic would come in handy, and it had. She was pleased to have a job of her own in the magical world, despite some of the coldness she got from some for her allegiances.
"I hope they love this one," Violet said with a loving smile.
"Sure they will. Miranda and Anastasia have both wanted you to have a baby for ages," Hermione said.
Violet chuckled, remembering Miranda begging her for babies. She wasn't sure where her niece got that from though.
"I just hope I've got a chance of being a good mum. I mean, I haven't exactly had good models, and I hope I don't become like the Dursleys. That's one of the reasons why I was afraid of getting pregnant ages ago," Violet said.
"You'll be okay. It's time to put the past to rest," Hermione said.
"Yeah, you're right."