The first weekend did not get off to a good start. Violet woke at the crack of dawn on Saturday to heavy, grumpy footsteps on the stairs outside the dormitory. She rubbed her eyes as she sat up and pushed red hair out of her face. The temptation to lie in bed was strong but she wouldn't get back to sleep with the racket the birds were making. She and Ginny had planned to go visit Hagrid in the morning but there was no way Ginny was going to be up this early. It was with a resigned sigh that she got out of the bed and dressed slowly and awkwardly. She may as well go down to breakfast then maybe go for a walk through the grounds. She might even make a start on Lockhart's homework, an essay on his best traits from Year with the Yeti. It would be easy enough, there were plenty to choose from.
She arrived in the Common Room just as Colin Creevey practically fell down the stairs to the boys' dormitories with his camera in hand. His face was flushed with excitement and he had eyes only for…
"Harry?" Violet asked, not sure if she was still dreaming or not, "Why are you up so early?"
"Quidditch training," Harry answered thickly. His glasses were slightly wonky on his nose and his hair had that messy look he always got when he was just awake.
"Isn't it a bit early for training?"
"You're telling me," Harry scowled and scratched his head. He was wearing scarlet robes and had his broomstick over his shoulder.
"Harry!" Colin said breathlessly, "If you're going to quidditch practise, can I come too? I've never seen quidditch before!"
"It'll be really boring," Harry said quickly with an appealing look to Violet.
"That's alright, I can take photos with my camera! My dad would love quidditch! He's a big football fan, you know? I know it's not the same as quidditch but sport is sport and he always likes learning about new ones and I bet he'll love quidditch because everyone here seems to…"
Colin continued like this the whole way down through the castle. Violet trailed along behind him and Harry, allowing her brother to explain the complicated rules of quidditch, who their rivals were, what his favourite game had been and why he liked his broomstick so much. It seemed a lot to take in but Colin seemed fixed on every word.
When they reached the Great Hall, Harry tried one last time to shake his incredibly talkative shadow,
"Are you sure you wouldn't fancy breakfast Colin? You must be starving."
"Oh no," Colin beamed, "I'm actually okay. I wouldn't eat until later anyway and I was never much of a breakfast person! Besides, how often will I get to see a quidditch practise?"
"Twice a day, every day if Wood has any choice in it," Harry muttered resignedly and turned to Violet, "Are you coming too?"
Her stomach was rumbling intensely and the smell from the Great Hall was fantastic but then, she hadn't seen much of Harry all week and it would be good to finally see some of the quidditch he loved so much. The resigned feeling she felt in her stomach was tingled with excitement.
"Sure," She smiled and followed Harry into the grounds.
At once she wished she had brought a heavier coat. It was sunny but misty and her breath fogged in front of her.
"It's exciting isn't it!" Colin beamed, mistaking her shiver for one of excitement, "Is it true your brother was the youngest seeker for a hundred years?"
"I think so," Violet was trying to stop her teeth from chattering.
"That's amazing! I wish I was that good at sports," Colin was still grinning but there was a note of longing in his voice, "I mean, imagine having the whole school chanting your name!"
It was still weird to hear one person saying her name without snapping or barking, let alone the entire school but she just nodded her head.
Colin insisted on taking a seat as high up in the stands as he could. The benches were hard and damp from the morning dew. She wrapped her arms around herself and settled in as deep as she could while Colin chatted away.
Violet had not bothered with her watch when she had got up, so she had no idea how long they waited. It felt like hours and the sun was getting higher in the sky.
"So anyway, I got the main role!" Colin beamed, "And I wasn't sure my dad was going to make it because he had a meeting that night but when I looked out at the audience, he was there! He had pretended to be sick so he could leave the meeting early and come and see my opening night! Isn't that amazing?"
Violet nodded. At least it was a little warmer now and there was some feeling coming back into her nose.
"Did your aunt and uncle ever come and see you in any of your school shows?"
She shook her head.
"Oh, they must have been really busy?"
"Sort of," Violet looked away wistfully. It wasn't Colin's fault, but it was hard not to feel jealous of him. What did it feel like, to have a parent who cared? Who didn't hate her just for existing. Her thoughts drifted to the album in Harry's dormitory, the photos of their mum and dad.
"Morning, you two!"
Violet snapped around. Ron and Hermione were climbing the stairs of the stands, wrapped in thick cloaks and scarves.
"What are you doing here?" Ron squinted at the pitch, "And where's the team? Harry told they were training this morning."
"They've not appeared yet," Violet said as she stretched stiff limbs.
"What?" Ron groaned loudly as he sat down beside Violet, "What are they talking about in there? The day-by-day history of quidditch?"
"Have you eaten yet?" Hermione asked kindly. When Colin and Violet shook their heads, she produced a wrapped-up cloth from her pocket which contained several rounds of buttered toast.
"We were keeping it for Harry," she sighed, "But it looks like he'll not need it. We can get something to eat at Hagrid's."
Ron snorted without looking around.
"Did you hear what happened this morning in the Ravenclaw Common Room?" Hermione asked on.
"No, what?" Colin asked, wide-eyed.
"A group of pixies got in through an open window and caused mischief. Lamps unscrewed, parchment thrown, things stolen, absolute chaos. We saw the prefects leaving breakfast to go deal with them."
Ron shook his head, "That'll be Lockhart's doing then."
"You don't know that!" Hermione glared at him, "We sorted all the pixies in our class!"
"I wouldn't put it past the stupid git to have released them again," Ron shook his head.
"He is not a stupid git!" Hermione answered shrilly.
"Have you had a class with him yet?" Ron asked Colin and Violet, ignoring Hermione.
"We had our first yesterday," Violet said a little nervously. What if she said something to annoy Hermione, "He was…good."
Lockhart had spoken at length of the things he had done and the monsters he had defeated. The idea of learning even a little bit of what he knew was terribly exciting. He was every bit the man she had expected from reading his books.
"See?" Hermione nodded sharply.
Ron snorted again but was interrupted by Colin leaping up to his feet and shouting, "Look! There they are!"
It was not quite as exciting as he had made it out, just seven dots in scarlet robes emerging from the changing rooms with brooms in hand. Even from so high up, Harry was obvious as he was by far the smallest of the team.
"Haven't you finished yet!" Ron cupped his hands together and shouted down.
"Haven't even started!" Harry shouted back.
The team mounted their brooms and shot into the air at an alarming speed. They were little more than red blurs as they shot around the pitch. Colin clicked away eagerly with his camera.
"This is amazing!" He squeaked, "I've never seen anything like it!"
"Just wait until they start doing something," Ron sighed and then tensed, "Uh oh. That looks like trouble."
He wasn't looking up at the sky but back at the ground, where seven more people in green robes had emerged from the opposite dressing room.
"The Slytherin team?" Hermione frowned, "What are they doing here?"
"Nothing good," Ron scowled and rose from his seat, "Come on."
The entire Gryffindor team had landed by the time they reached the pitch and were facing off against the Slytherins. They were all huge and powerfully built with the exception of one boy who was standing in the middle.
"What's going on?" Ron asked, "Why aren't you playing? And what's he doing here?" He nodded to Draco Malfoy as if he were something particularly dirty on his shoe.
"Everyone's just been admiring the new brooms my father has purchased for the house team, Weasley," Malfoy turned his broom so Ron could see the handle, where Nimbus 2001 was written in silver lettering. It meant nothing to Violet but Ron's face went pale and his mouth fell open.
"I believe it surpasses the old 2000 by a considerable margin and as for the Cleansweep," Malfoy smirked at Fred and George, "They're not even in the same century."
"At least no one on the Gryffindor team had to buy their way onto the team," Hermione sniffed, "They got in on pure talent."
Violet was shocked by the look of revulsion Malfoy gave her in return, "No one asked you, you filthy little Mudblood."
There was instant uproar. Half the Slytherin team had to jump in front of Fred and George as they leapt for Malfoy. Angelina Johnson balled her fists and cursed him loudly while Ron pulled his wand from his pocket.
"You shouldn't have said that!" He shouted, face contorted in rage, "Eat slugs, Malfoy!"
There was a burst of light and Ron was thrown back onto the grass. The Gryffindors rushed over to find him green-faced and clammy. He sat up just in time to belch up several large and slimy slugs. The Slytherins howled in laughter, Malfoy was on his knees and holding his side, while Harry and Hermione lifted Ron by the elbows.
"We'll take him to Hagrid," Harry said to Hermione.
"Harry!" Colin had raised his camera, "Can you turn him this way please?"
"Get out of the way, Colin!" Harry pushed past him as they half-carried, half-dragged Ron from the pitch with the howls of the Slytherin team in their ears.
"Careful," Malfoy called after the Gryffindors as they followed, "You'd rather be touched by the slugs than by Granger!"
Violet and Colin found Ginny having breakfast in the Great Hall. When they had finished telling her what had happened, she shook her red head with a frown.
"Bill used that spell all the time in the summer," She sighed, "You only ever threw up one slug. It's not one I would have tried with a broken wand. Not that I blame him," Her expression turned ugly, "Malfoy called Hermione a Mudblood?"
"Yeah," Colin nodded, "But I don't know what it means? Everyone went mad when he said it."
"Of course they did," Ginny scowled, "It's the worst thing you can call someone muggle-born. It's a horrible thing to say, as if their blood is somehow dirty."
Violet recalled Malfoy's face as he had said it, the hatred in his voice and how the Gryffindors had reacted. Had she really found someone who was an even bigger bully than Dudley? She had always that was impossible.
"It's exactly the sort of thing I would expect from him," Ginny shook her head, "And he's on the Slytherin team now?"
"Yeah," Colin said, "He bought them all new brooms! Something 2001s?"
Ginny's mouth fell open exactly like Ron's had, "Nimbus 2001s? He hasn't!"
"He showed them to us," Violet said, "Is that good?"
"Good?" She choked, "They're the best brooms you can buy! There's league teams who don't even have them yet!"
"I don't see why it's such a big deal," Romilda was sitting further along the bench and reading a magazine, "They're just broom sticks."
"These aren't just brooms," Ginny shook her head in disbelief.
Romilda shrugged and turned the page of her magazine.
Fred and George, changed out of their quidditch robes, sat down next to Ginny.
"I take it you've been filled in?" Fred said grimly.
Ginny nodded, "Are they proper 2001s?"
"Oh yeah," George had grabbed a tray of sausages and was piling them onto his plate, "Down to the last twig."
"It would have cost so much gold," Ginny was still gawping.
Fred shrugged as he piled up the eggs in front of him, "Small price to get widdle Malfoy onto the team. And as Seeker too."
"Bet Nimbus 2000s would have only gotten him in as a chaser," George was now loading up the bacon on top of his sausages, "For someone so incredibly thick, Flint has been very cunning."
"Is Malfoy any good?" Ginny asked.
"Who cares?" Fred was pouring ketchup over his breakfast, "Ravenclaw are all on Cleansweeps and no one in Hufflepuff has better than a Comet 260. Slytherin could have Errol as Seeker and they'll still batter them."
"What about Gryffindor?" Violet asked. Fred and George tucked into their breakfasts in reply.
Alicia, Angelina, and Katie sat across from the twins. Like them, they looked incredibly bad-tempered.
"No sign of Wood?" Fred asked.
"He went back to the Common Room," Katie sighed as she tucked into an omelette, "Said he had to plan."
George snorted, "That's not going to help much, unless he's planning to rob Quality Quidditch Supplies."
"It's so unfair!" Alicia said furiously, "Malfoy's such a horrible, horrible person but because his dad has gold, they're going to win the Quidditch cup again!"
"That's the Malfoys for you," Fred said, "Every single one of them, rotten to the core."
The table feel suddenly silent. Atia Malfoy had sat down some distance from them. The Gryffindor team were glaring down the table at her and she glared back.
"I don't suppose you fancy making a contribution?" Fred asked loudly, "We're not picky, we'll take Nimbus 2000s if we must."
Alicia scoffed, "I bet she's loving her brother lording over everyone. After all, we're all just filthy muggle-lovers, right?"
Atia scowled, stood up from the table without eating and stormed off.
"Was that a bit much?" Violet asked, biting her lip.
Alicia wheeled around to her, and Violet wilted at once at her anger,
"You saw Malfoy this morning. You heard what he said. People like Hermione are dirt on his shoe, if they're lucky, and my family are scum because we have 'bad blood'. He thinks like that, his father thinks like that, and she thinks like that too. I don't know why the Hat put her in Gryffindor. If it wanted her gone, it should have just said."
Ginny had changed her mind from going to visit Hagrid that afternoon, as she didn't want to see her brother throwing up slugs onto the floor. Instead, they wandered the grounds for hours and didn't even see a tenth of them. The evening was cooler, so they retired to the Common Room to do their homework. There was no sign of Atia there either, but there never was. She seemed to wake up first thing every morning and not come back until well after dark. Where she spent her time between classes, Violet had no idea. There were rumours she went into the forest during classes and at weekends.
It was during the middle of the next week that she saw Atia outside of class. They had been heading to History of Magic, but Violet had forgotten her homework so hurried back towards the common room to pick it up. She turned a onto a deserted corridor to find Atia cornered by two Ravenclaw boys she did not recognise, tall and broad. Atia's ripped bag was on the ground, her belongings scattered across the floor.
"-I'm warning you," A boy with curly hair was saying, "Any more mouth from your brother and you'll be having more little accidents like this one."
Violet froze. Should she go get a teacher? A prefect? Could she find anyone in time? Where was the quickest way to go?
She took a deep breath, "Hey! Leave her alone!"
The two boys turned and pointed their wands at Violet instead. Her chest tightened. She had yet to produce a spark on command from her wand. Her hands were frozen at her side.
"Stay out of this," the curly-haired boy said, "Unless you want jinxed like this one!"
Every instinct was calling at Violet to run away but she stood firmly where she was, "I said, leave her alone!"
"Or what?" The boy sneered.
Violet did not get a chance to answer. From behind the boys came pounding footsteps and before she knew it, both had been thrown out to the floor. Crabbe and Goyle stood over them, fists balled and ugly expressions on their normally stupid faces.
"Thought you could bully my sister, Cooper?" Malfoy strode up with a sneer at the curly haired boy, "After a little revenge?"
Cooper had gotten to his feet and grabbed his wand. Crabbe and Goyle stood protectively in front of Malfoy.
"Any more lip about me or my family, Malfoy," he scowled and wiped his lip, "And this'll happen again. You can't protect her around the clock."
"Big words for such a nobody," Malfoy scoffed, "Why don't you scuttle off back to your common room?"
"What's going on here?"
Violet jumped at the squeaky voice from her elbow. Professor Flitwick was standing there and examining them all.
"Nothing, Professor," Cooper said as he put his wand away, "We just bumped into each other."
"Well, come along then, you'll be late for charms!" Flitwick gave the scene one last long look before accompanying the two boys.
"Are you okay?" Malfoy turned to Atia, who was gathering up her things.
"Fine," she snapped without looking up.
"Cooper's a pathetic mudblood," Malfoy stood over her without helping, "He'll not dare cross me again."
"Oh good," Atia was trying to hold her torn bag in such a way that nothing fell out, "That makes me feel so much better."
Malfoy looked up as if just noticing Violet. His eyes narrowed, "What are you doing, Potter? Enjoying the show? Going to cry to big brother?"
Violet said nothing but that cruel sneer drained away her courage. All she saw in her mind was Uncle Vernon looming over her.
"Come on," Atia grabbed Malfoy by the sleeve and gave Violet a disdainful look, "I need to get to class."
With a final laugh in her direction, Malfoy followed his sister, accompanied by Crabbe and Goyle. Violet stood for a moment, trying to gather what had happened. Had Atia actually stopped Malfoy from teasing her? The look had been as horrible as it ever was but, she had a done a nice thing for Violet. Maybe that was all she could do?
With a shake of her head and a sigh, Violet hurried for the Common Room.
It was a few days later, as she lay in bed, that Violet felt it.
Her Transfiguration homework was running around in her head along the memory of Fred and George dropping scrunched up parchment in Percy's hair without him noticing. As her eyes had finally grown heavy, she felt a sudden sense of dread.
She sat up in bed with a gasp. Where had that feeling come from? She was no stranger to fear and worry but this felt different, like a static shock rather than her own thoughts. Perhaps she was a bit stressed; Professor McGonagall's homework had been very difficult.
Violet got out of bed with a sigh and pulled on her dressing gown. She was wide awake so she might as well go down to the common room and read for a while, where Romilda's snoring wouldn't distract her.
She had just reached the common room with Voyages with Vampires under arm when the portrait swung open, and Harry stepped in. Tonight had been his detention with Lockhart and he had been dreading it all day.
"Worse than you thought then?" She asked. He was very pale and strained and jumped at her voice.
"Terrible," He shook his head, "He didn't shut up once. I didn't know it was possible for someone to talk so much and say absolutely nothing."
"Sounds like Uncle Vernon talking about drills," She smiled.
He smiled back but the worry was etched in his face.
"What's wrong?" She asked.
"Nothing," he said far too quickly. Violet felt that dread again.
"Harry," She pressed as she set the book down on a chair, "I know when something's wrong."
He shook his head, but he was thinking fast. It was the look he had when he was trying to outthink their uncle.
"Did you hear anything?" He finally asked.
She shook her head. Far from looking happier, Harry looked more concerned.
"It was in Lockhart's office, during my detention. I…heard a voice."
"What sort of voice?"
"I don't know," Harry looked into the embers of the fireplace, "I'm sure it's nothing."
"It doesn't look like nothing." Violet bit her lip.
"Don't worry, Vi. I'm sure I'm just tired, or bored crazy by Lockhart's fan mail," Harry forced a smile, but she could tell he was still thinking about it, "I'll be okay. I'm going to wait for Ron in my dormitory. Have a good night."
As Harry climbed the steps to his bedroom, Violet sat cross-legged in the chair closest to the fire. Harry had heard a voice and it had scared him, that much she knew. He was probably right though; it was probably just tiredness. The dread feeling had faded and so she settled to read her book until finally heading up to bed herself for a restless sleep.