Violet woke early the next morning having had the best sleep of her entire life. She stared up at the canopy of her four-poster bed for a while and tried to convince herself that it all hadn't been a dream. After so many months of hoping, of reading Harry's letters, she was finally here.
It was only when she heard movement from Ginny's bed that Violet pulled back her curtains. The view from the window was of the gardens and of the forest in the distance though the day was grey and overcast.
"Morning!" Ginny threw open her curtains with flaming red hair a tangled mess, "Ready to learn how to be a witch?"
"Definitely!" Violet grinned. Atia and Romilda's beds were empty already. The final bed belonged to…
"Theodora," Ginny shouted as she changed, "Come on! You're going to be late!"
"Hardly," A heavy voice replied from within, "Leave me alone."
"Suit yourself," Ginny shrugged as the door swung open. Violet did a double take at the sight of Romilda's vivid orange face and dark hair wrapped up in massive curlers.
"Wow," Ginny's voice was oddly high-pitched voice, "It's a good look, Romilda. It…suits you."
Romilda rolled her eyes. Her whites stood out compared to her face colour, "It's Pierre Parfaite's No Flake Skin potion," She said it as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, "Nothing else is good enough!"
Ginny nodded sagely but set her jaw tight when she caught Violet's eye, "Are you coming for breakfast?"
"Shortly," Romilda sat down at the dresser in the room and pulled out another half-dozen bottles, "I have a few tiny things left to do."
"Of course," Ginny nodded seriously as she pushed Violet towards the door, "We'll see you down there."
Only when they were out of earshot did they burst out giggling. The Common Room was a lot quieter than last night. There were just a few sleepy students sitting in the armchairs with steaming mugs in hand. Colin was waiting by the door, bouncing on the balls of his feet.
"Morning Ginny! Morning Violet! How'd you sleep? It's brilliant here, isn't it? My bed felt just like it does at home! Are you going to breakfast? Can I join you? Is it true that your brothers flew a flying car to school? Are they in trouble?"
Violet exchanged a nervous look with Ginny. She had no idea how Harry had avoided being expelled but she was thinking more about poor Mr Weasley. What was the Ministry going to do to him?
She chewed her lip as Colin chatted away. The journey down to the Great Hall was far from smooth as they took a wrong turn and ran into Peeves. He chased them screaming down two floors and pelted them with pillows until they were rescued by tiny Professor Flitwick, who showed them the correct way to go.
Ron and Harry were already sitting and eating breakfast while Hermione had her nose buried in Voyages with Vampires. The table was as filled as the feast, with steaming pots of porridge and cereals, plates of eggs done every way possible, sizzling bacon and thick, fat sausages.
"Morning," Harry smiled at Violet as she sat down, "Find your way to breakfast okay?"
"Uh yeah," She wheezed as she pulled a feather from her hair, "No trouble at all."
Ginny was very quiet.
"Do you know you have a feather in your hair?" Harry asked her kindly.
Her ears went scarlet, and she hurriedly swept her hair.
"Hi Harry!" Colin said breathlessly with eyes as wide as dinner plates and voice even higher pitched than normal, "I'm Colin Creevey! Is it true you flew a car to Hogwarts last night and you got expelled?"
Harry shared an uncomfortable look with Ron, "We didn't get expelled."
"But you did steal Mr-" Violet began but Ron hissed like an angry snake.
"We didn't steal the car," Harry whispered across the table with his hand blocking his mouth. Colin leant in intently despite her brother blocking him off, "The barrier blocked us getting through. We had to get to school somehow."
"Mr Weasley was trying to get back through to you, why didn't you wait for him?" Violet hissed back.
"We didn't know he was trying to get through," Harry said defensively, "We were just trying to get to school before we got in trouble."
Hermione gave a loud tut from behind her book.
"Besides," Ron huffed, "It's not our fault the invisibility booster shorted out. Do you know how many times Fred and George flew that car without anything going wrong?"
Violet was about to ask if the car was okay when Neville sat down beside them and began putting eggs, bacon and sausages onto his plate,
"Morning!" he said cheerfully, "Post should be arriving at any moment. I think Gran's sending on a few things I've forgotten."
Violet was helping herself to an omelette when there came a screeching from overhead.
"Wow!" Colin gasped and dropped his spoon. Dozens of owls had swooped into the hall and were circling overhead, dropping packages and envelopes into the chatting crowd. A massive owl dropped a massive, lumpy parcel on Neville's head before something landed with a loud splash in Hermione's milk jug. There was yells and squeals as everyone was drenched in milk and feathers.
"Errol!" Ron picked the owl out by his feet and propped him on the table on his back. Violet examined the owl with concern while Hermione tried to dry her book, "Oh no!"
"It's alright, he's still alive," Hermione was examining Errol along with Violet and prodded him gently with her finger.
"It's not that, it's that!" He pointed to the red letter than had fallen from his beak. It looked like a normal letter, aside from the red envelope but Ron, Ginny and Neville were watching it in horror, as if it was about to attack them.
"What is it?" Harry asked.
"It's a," Ron gulped, "A howler."
"A what?"
"Yoi better open it, Ron," Neville whispered as if he was going to wake it up, "My Gran sent me one once and it was horrible. It'll be over quickly."
With a trembling hand, Ron peeled back the lip.
At once the hall was filled with Mrs Weasley's booming voice, so loud that Violet's ears ached even with her hands covering them.
"STEALING THE CAR! I WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN SURPRISED IF THEY'D EXPELLED YOU! YOU WAIT TILL I GET HOLD OF YOU! I DON'T SUPPOSE YOU STOPPED TO THINK WHAT YOUR FATHER AND I WENT THROUGH WHEN WE SAW IT WAS GONE-"
Everyone in the hall had turned to the Gryffindor table. Ron had sunk so low in his chair that only his flaming red hair and glowing forehead were visible.
"-LETTER FROM DUMBLEDORE LAST NIGHT, I THOUGHT YOUR FATHER WOULD DIE OF SHAME! WE DIDN'T BRING YOU UP TO BEHAVE LIKE THIS! YOU AND HARRY COULD BOTH HAVE DIED-"
Violet felt herself shrink from the voice, from the anger in those deafening words. All she could see in her mind was Uncle Vernon towering over her, face purple-coloured face, moustache bristling as he roared.
"-ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED! YOUR FATHER'S FACING AN INQUIRY AT WORK, IT'S ENTIRELY YOUR FAULT AND IF YOU PUT ANOTHER TOE OUT OF LINE WE'LL BRING YOU STRAIGHT BACK HOME!"
The letter burst into flames and fell into Neville's cereal.
There was a long silence. Then there were a few bursts of laughter and everyone began chatting again. Violet's mouth had gone very dry and her hands were clammy where she clenched them.
"Well," Hermione closed Voyages with a Vampire with a snap, "I think-"
"Don't," Ron said through gritted teeth, forehead the colour of beetroot, "Tell me I deserved it."
Ginny had gone very pale and Violet couldn't meet her eye. Her stomach squirmed with guilt. After all the kindness the Weasleys had shone them, they now had no car and Mr Weasley could lose his job, or worse. A quick look at Harry's strained face confirmed he was feeling exactly the same thing. He was looking down at his breakfast, poking at it with his fork.
The silence was only broken when Romilda sat down beside Violet and made her jump. Her face was no longer orange in colour and her hair was down and curly.
"Morning," She said cheerfully as she piled some sliced apple and oranges on to her plate, "Nice start to someone's day, getting a howler like that."
"You heard it?" Violet asked in surprise.
"From two floors up, I'd be so embarrassed if my mum had sent me one on my first day back," Romilda said. She didn't notice the glares she was getting from Ron and Ginny, "Who was it for anyway? I didn't hear the start."
"Ron," Violet glanced at him. His forehead was still a deep read.
"Oh dear," Romilda shrugged, "It must have been because of your car yesterday."
"Funnily enough," Ron scowled, "Come on." He got up and stormed from the hall. Harry shot Violet an apologetic look and hurried after him.
Hermione put her book in her bag with a deep sigh.
"See you at lunch," she said and followed after the pair. Stopping by Professor McGonagall who was handing out parchment to students along the table.
Ginny rounded on Romilda, "What did you have to do that for?" She snapped.
"What?" Romilda looked surprised.
"Make him feel like an idiot in front of everyone?"
"Excuse me," Romilda snorted, "It was him who got the howler in front of everyone. If he didn't want anyone to hear it, he should have gone outside."
"You didn't need to make him feel worse about it!"
Violet could still feel that squirming guilt in her stomach and looked up just as Professor McGonagall approached. Her eyebrows were raised warningly.
"I hope you're not arguing on your first day," she said to Ginny and Romilda.
"No, Professor," They answered in unison and glared at one another.
Professor McGonagall eyed them suspiciously and waved her wand. Three pieces of parchment flew from her hand and landed in front of Violet, Ginny and Romilda.
"Your timetables. I expect you to be outside your classrooms five minutes at least five minutes beforehand. If you can't find a room, ask a prefect, teacher or ghost and they will show you the way."
Violet studied her first timetable eagerly. This was it! She was really here! She was still waiting for someone to come and tell her it had all been a mistake.
"Oh look!" Colin showed his timetable to the girls, "We have astronomy at midnight on Wednesday!"
Ginny groaned, "Brilliant."
Romilda squealed right in Violet's ear and made her jump. Her ear had only just stopped throbbing from the howler, "We have double Defence Against the Dark Arts on Friday!" She held the timetable to her chest and sighed wistfully.
Ginny just shook her head in disbelief and went back to scanning the timetable.
"Uh oh," She said, "First potions class on Thursday. And we're with the Slytherins." She scowled, "Typical."
Violet gulped and tried not to think about the unpleasantness that would be waiting for her from Snape.
The classes were exactly as Harry had described in his letters; challenging, different, and interesting. Transfiguration was incredibly complicated with lots of notetaking under Professor McGonagall's strict gaze. After just the first class, Violet found her head was throbbing. They used their wands more in Professor Flitwick's charms classes, but they were just as hard. Herbology class they took with the Hufflepuffs and there were no wands at all. It was rather like the gardening Aunt Petunia would do during the summer, only with plants that wanted to fight back to keep things interesting. They took Astronomy during the day with the Ravenclaws, noting the properties of planets and moons. Wednesday night was the practical that Colin had been so excited for. It took place at midnight on top of the tallest tower, and they peered through their telescopes to try and find those same planets and moons from the afternoon class.
Violet stifled a yawn as she sat down at the breakfast table on Thursday, head propped in her hand as she stirred at her porridge.
"Morning," Harry grinned as he sat down beside her. Ginny had been reading the sports section of the Daily Prophet to her side and immediately knocked her glass of orange juice over Lee Jordan's toast.
"Morning," Violet put her hand over her mouth.
"First Astronomy night?"
"How can you tell?"
Harry laughed, "Just wait until you get your first homework. You'll be begging for those weekend lie-ins."
Violet opened her mouth to answer but Harry ducked as if he had just spotted a knife coming straight for him. She flinched at his reaction and whipped around. The other tables all looked normal, although there were few people pointing and whispering in their direction. This was something she had been forced to get used to. Hagrid had told Harry he was famous in the wizarding word and the letters he had sent from his first year had said the same. Violet had not quite believed it until she had seen for her own eyes how many people watched him walk past or whispered behind his back and pointed. There was no such attention for her, and she was very grateful for it.
"What?" She said, "What?"
"Nothing," Harry hissed, "Pretend I'm not here!"
"Well, you're not making it easy."
"Shut up. Is he gone?"
"Who?" She instinctively looked for Draco Malfoy, but he wasn't at the Slytherin table.
"Lockhart!"
"He's sitting at the staff table if that's what you mean."
"Okay," Harry emerged with a deep breath, "Just got away with it."
"Are you feeling alright?" Violet frowned.
"Just fine," Harry took a piece of toast without taking his eyes from the top table. Lockhart was speaking enthusiastically and with a wide grin to Professor Sinistra of the Astronomy Department, who was not showing the same eagerness, "We've had a few chats is all."
"What about?"
"I don't want to talk about it," He glanced at his watch, "I need to get to Charms. What's your first class today?"
"Potions."
Harry winced, "Good luck."
He marched from the Hall as if late for a bus, his piece of toast covering his face as he went.
"What was that all about?" Violet shook her head at Ginny.
Ginny had just finished apologising to Lee and shrugged.
"Hey!" Colin jumped down and made the whole bench rattle, "Is Harry here?"
"You just missed him," Violet said, "Why?"
"I was hoping he would sign my photograph of him! I wanted to send it back to my dad,"
"Why do you want him to sign a photograph?" Asked Ginny with a raised eyebrow.
"He's famous," Colin said it as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, "I've never met a famous person before! Lockhart signed one for me, but Harry wouldn't do it in front of everyone."
"It's not really his thing," Violet frowned. At least she thought it wasn't.
"Ready for Potions?" Ginny changed the subject.
"Not really," Violet took a deep breath.
"Yeah!" Colin beamed, "I've heard it's really interesting!"
"Who on earth said that?" Ginny snorted.
"Hermione!"
"Of course she did," Ginny checked her watch, "Come on. We don't want to be late, or we'll be in trouble already."
Compared to the rest of the castle, the dungeons were cold and dark Even the torches high up on the walls only gave a grim light with shadows and flickered on the walls and ceiling. There was a horrible smell of damp and an unpleasant drip-drip-drip that echoed on the stone.
Violet shivered fiercely and pushed closer to Ginny. Even Colin was quiet but she could feel his excitement behind them. The rest of the class was already waiting for them, including the Slytherins.
"Oh, look who it is," Sneered a gaunt girl with short white hair.
For a moment, Violet thought she was talking to her until a sullen voice answered from behind her.
"Clear off, Tallow." It was Atia Malfoy, holding her books in her hands and with an ugly scowl. Her eyes looked red and there were dark shadows beneath them.
"Oooh," Tallow put a hand over her mouth in mock terror, "Hear the little lion roar! What are you going to do, hmm? Are you going to tell all your muggle friends about me?"
"I said clear off!" Atia pushed painfully past Violet.
"You should hear your brother talking about you," Tallow laughed cruelly while the girls behind her sniggered, "Poor Draco. The perfect wizard and then he gets stuck with you as a sister, the blood traitor!"
"I didn't ask the Hat to put me in this stupid house!" Atia snapped.
"You clearly weren't worthy of Slytherin," Tallow rolled her eyes, "And it was right. I mean, look at you."
She slapped Atia's books out of her hands. They landed in a puddle at her feet, soaking both her and Violet's shoes with water.
"Pathetic," Tallow soaked up the laughter from the Slytherins as the door opened. The class began shuffling in. Atia knelt by the puddle to pick up her books.
"Are you okay?" Violet knelt to help her while Ginny stood just behind her.
"Leave me alone!" Atia snarled so fiercely that Violet flinched back, "I don't need help from the likes of you!"
She gathered up her books and slipped into the class.
"Charming," Ginny scowled as Violet wiped her knees, "She doesn't help herself much."
Violet bit her lip. Atia had been so mean to her in Knockturn Alley and every time she had tried to talk to her, yet all she felt for her was pity.
Violet and Ginny took a seat at a table with Colin and Romilda. The latter looked grumpy,
"Imagine having a class in a dungeon," She hissed as she pulled at her hair, "The humidity is ruining my ends."
The door swung open violently behind them and in swept Snape. He was taller than Violet had expected with sallow skin and a narrow face made narrower by his long and greasy hair. His eyes swept the room and lingered on her as they had at the first Banquet.
He took the roll, pausing only briefly at Violet's name, before pacing at the front of the classroom with robe billowing.
"Wands away," He said in a drawling voice, "In this classroom you will not need them. What you will undertake within these walls is the most challenging of magic known to wizard-kind. A magic of logic and intuition, where a single extra stir of a cauldron can make the difference between beauty and horrors you cannot imagine. What I will teach you will grant you responsibility no other magic can equal; the power to heal, curse, save or condemn. Assuming it penetrates your thick skulls at all, that is."
He looked at Romilda, "Vane, what is the main ingredient of a simple sleeping draft?"
Romilda shrugged.
"Oh dear," He sneered, "I see this year's Gryffindors are to their usual standard."
The Slytherins sniggered.
"Let's try again; Weasley, when is the Firebeard at it's most potent?"
Ginny glared at Snape but did not answer.
"Tut- tut," He shook his head and turned his grey eyes to Violet. Her stomach dropped and she gulped loudly. She could already feel herself shrinking from him.
No question came. His gaze lingered on her for a long moment before it flicked to Colin.
"Creevey; the first of Stoyskovic's Laws; go."
"Who's Stoyskovic?" Colin asked with wide eyes.
Snape sighed loudly and looked to the ceiling as if appealing for patience from above. The Slytherins' sniggers grew louder.
"Seeing as not one Gryffindor thought it prudent to read before they arrived; the main ingredient of a sleeping draft is Valerian, though I would have accepted Lavender as their quantities are similar. Fire-beard, also known as Lingua Ignis, is most potent after a solar eclipse but can be picked at any time depending on the potency required and Stoyskovic's first law is that a potion cannot be greater in volume than the sum total of it's ingredients." He looked around the room, "Why are none of you writing this down?"
There was a scramble for ink and parchment.
"Let's see," Snape smiled unpleasantly, "Let's take two points from Gryffindor for each question unanswered and an extra two from you, Creevey, for not even knowing the name Stoyskovic."
"Can you believe him?" Romilda hissed, "Eight points from us in our first week? It's so unfair!"
"I looked at all my books before I came but the potions one is huge. He doesn't want us to know all of it, does he?" Colin asked nervously.
"No Colin," Ginny was scowling at Snape's bad, "He's just being a bully because he can. Any excuse to take any points from Gryffindor."
Violet concentrated on her notes and waited for the inevitable question,
"Why did he skip you over though?" Ginny asked with a frown, "He loves bullying Harry. Never misses a chance to humiliate him in front of the entire class. Why not you as well?"
Violet was still trying to make sense of it herself. Rather than relieved at not being picked on, she only felt confused. Why had he left her alone? She hadn't known who Stoyskovic was either, but he hadn't even asked her. He hadn't even taken any points from her. Was this some sort of game he was playing? Was he saving his bullying until a better time?
She sighed and went back to her parchment. She had been dreading Potions more than any other class and it had been no worse than any of the others. Hogwarts was certainly full of surprises, that was for sure.