Yo! I was wondering when someone else was going to flame me about Violet's character not being 'Slytherin enough'. This person was an anon with poor grammar. I'm not surprised. Most shit like this is done via 'guests'. So basically, I'm wanted to what?-have Violet follow the usual Slytherin characteristics and prejudices? No thanks.

Guess this person is missing the entire point of what I'm attempting to do here. I suppose they're disappointed that Violet isn't a typical cold, callous, dark, aloof, powerful, loner, ect...that Slytherin Harry ends up being. Sorry for wanting to write a human being instead of a gimmick. Actually, I don't know why I'm apologizing (must be my inner Canadian). I owe you nothing, random internet anon. Plenty of people appear to be enjoying this as it's been, so there's literally nothing making you special.

And man am I frustrated with some of you continuing to flame me for daring to include characters that exist in canon that you don't like. That's stupid. If you don't like certain characters that much, don't read things with them in them. And stop reading fics with pairings you don't like if all you're going to do is complain about the pairing!

Oh, that reminds me, I had a dream where Kili pushed Dumbledore off a cliff and then laughed. It was adorable. Kili is adorable. Don't get me wrong, I still totally love Aragorn. But Kili's just...adorable. Anyway, sorry about the giant AN, and thank you to all readers so far!

The rest of the Christmas break truly was uneventful. With only six students in the castle, two of them being shy first years, there really wasn't anything interesting going on at all, even if there were issues between the other four of them. The two Slytherins and the two Gryffindors mostly just kept to themselves, and honestly?-all four of them were enjoying the peace and quiet.

And since there was nothing going on with the students, the professors seemed to be content to leave them to their own devices, so long as they appeared for dinner in the Great Hall each evening. Other than that, it didn't seem to matter what they said or did. No one was complaining about that at all.

With Madam Pince away for the break as well, Violet approached Professor Snape about being allowed inside the library so she could borrow a couple of books. Violet wasn't sure why he didn't question her about that-didn't know if it was because she was who she was, or because he suspected what she wanted to research, but he agreed, remaining in the library with her and checking out the books she found after a bit of looking.

Snape gave the covers of the books a glance, but said nothing about them at all, leading Violet to believe he did already know why she wanted them.

Both books were, of course, on the patronus charm that Professor Lupin promised he would teach her. Since Snape didn't say anything, Violet took that to mean Lupin was right in that her attempting to cast the spell wasn't a dangerous thing. And while she did trust Lupin, the fact that Snape didn't find a problem with the spell was actually kind of reassuring. Maybe that was because he was her Head of House and had his own weird ways of showing concern. She honestly didn't know.

With Theodore spending the day doing his break homework, Violet (who was sort of procrastinating on that front), curled up in one of the armchairs by the fire in Slytherin's common room, Sauron napping by the hearth, and began to read one of the books she'd just borrowed, already prepared to take notes...

Some time later, while Violet was lost in her research and notes, Sauron, awakening from his nap, decided he was bored. He didn't wish to disturb his new...companion-she was clearly quite busy, but he had no desire to simply lay here either. He was too bored for that.

He would explore the castle more, he decided. It'd been some time since he had last been here, after all, and perhaps things had changed since then.

He slithered to the door and hissed at it to open. When it did, he made his way out into the corridor where he began his exploration.

The floors were irritatingly cold in this place, the stone chilling his underside. The dungeons in particular were the coldest in the entire castle, he knew, so it was sure to warm up a little once he was out of it.

And not very long after he did, when he was just past the Entrance Hall, he encountered a human-the one in the shabby clothing. Ah, yes, Lupin his name was, wasn't it? He stopped where he was.

Lupin stopped too, looking down at him. Then he hesitated for a beat before kneeling down. "Does Violet know you've left the common room, Sauron?" he said.

Raising his head off the ground, Sauron shook it as well as he could. It surprised him that he could smell no fear coming off this man. He was a little nervous, but certainly not frightened. How strange. He looked ill, but smelled tired and somewhat weak. He could tell the human was not just human-was something more than human, but he was unable to determine what exactly that non-human side of him was.

Lupin smiled gently. "You shouldn't be out for too long then. It's cold in here, and Violet will worry if you're gone for a long time."

This time Sauron nodded. Lupin then conjured a rather tasty looking mouse for him, which squeaked in fear before running off. If the serpent could smirk, he would have done so right now as he shot off after the mouse.

He didn't always understand human speech. There were some humans he was able to understand more than others (like Violet, or her Theodore friend), and others he wasn't unable to understand at all (like Violet's Hermione friend), but his understanding of Lupin had more to do with the man's beast blood, whatever that beast was.

After his meal, Sauron continued his exploration, recalling Lupin's words about not staying out for too much longer. He would return once he reached the end of this corridor, he decided. It truly was cold here, and the hearth in the common room suddenly sounded a lot more welcoming to him, bored or not.

And then he smelled a rat. A strange rat that smelled more human than it did rat. What in Basilisk's name was that? Curious, he followed the scent for a few minutes, never coming across the...thing, whatever it was, and soon enough lost track of it. The scent must have been older than he'd been thinking.

Unable to find the scent again, he returned to Slytherin's common room, once more curling up by the hearth, Violet still in the midst of her readings. Sauron still wasn't sure what the smell had been, or why it had smelled both rat and human, the latter more than the former.

How curious...

Nothing else really happened over the break, at least nothing particularly important or eventful, and it wasn't long before all the other students returned, filling up the corridors with their noise yet again.

...How unfortunate.

Classes began the very next day as well, everything continuing on as if there hadn't been a two week long break at all. But at least they finally actually began studying runes in Ancient Runes, though they were only on the basic of the basics of them. Still, the progress was nice, minimal though it was.

Either way, Violet had a feeling that if her rune really was, well, a rune, then it wasn't something she was going to learn about any time soon.

She supposed that wasn't a huge deal or anything. If learning about it now meant she wasn't going to understand anything about it thanks to her lack of knowledge on the subject, then learning it later, once she knew more, made a lot more sense, didn't it? Unless it was something that did come up earlier, which she kind of doubted.

Technically she could probably try to look it up in a book or something, regardless of what year she was in (unless the book was in the restricted section and no one wanted to give her permission to read it, though she could always sneak over using the map the Weasley twins had given her), or even ask the professor about it, but...did she really want to do that right now? What if it turned out that the rune was something bad?

The rune on her skin had always been something that...not exactly defined her, but was something she'd always considered a part of her. It was one of those things that made her different from everyone else, which she'd taken great solace in back at the orphanage and at primary school, where she'd been alone more often than not. She'd always considered it to be a good thing-mostly because there hadn't been many of those back then. And if it turned out that it was something bad, something horrible, something best gotten rid of... She didn't know if she wanted to find that out just yet.

She was too scared to learn the truth about the rune.

Professor Lupin called Violet back as she began to leave the classroom after her next Defence lesson, telling her he'd finally managed to catch up on all his urgent work and now had some free time, if she still wanted to learn the patronus charm. She did, of course, especially after all the research she'd done on it.

They spoke for a moment longer, deciding when and where, and once that was finalized, Violet left the room, feeling rather pleased. She really did want to learn how to cast this spell, though she didn't know if she was even going to be able to. The books said the same thing Lupin did. The spell wasn't dangerous to cast in any way. It just took a lot of magic and focus-more than what children her age were capable of. That didn't mean it would be impossible for her to cast it, just that it was bound to be awfully difficult.

But that was fine. Violet liked having a challen-

"Neville?"

"Oh, hello Violet. How've you been?"

"Alright. What about you? What're you doing out here?" They were standing in the middle of one of Hogwarts' many corridors, this one not too far from the Defence classroom.

"I'm doing okay. And I'm looking for Trevor. He's gotten away from me again." Neville sighed sorrowfully, glancing around. "Have you seen him anywhere?"

Violet shook her head. "I'm sorry, but I haven't. Do you want some help looking for him?"

Neville smiled shyly. "No, that's alright, but thank you. He'll find me once he's hungry. That's what he always does. Oh...but, um, if you could maybe tell your snake not to eat him...?"

Violet laughed, unable to help herself. "Don't worry. He won't, but I'll let him know anyway." Sauron didn't care for toads. At least not as food. He preferred mice. But she knew he wandered around the castle a lot. Maybe she would ask him to just keep an eye out for Trevor...

That Thursday at eight in the evening, Violet stepped into the darkened History of Magic classroom. Lupin wasn't here yet, so she lit the lamp and settled down to wait. Today was going to be her first lesson in casting the patronus charm and she was feeling a little nervous. ...No, nervous wasn't the right word. Anxious, perhaps?

Fortunately, she didn't have to focus on this feeling for very long. Professor Lupin entered the room with a rather large crate just five minutes later, greeting her as he set it down on the desk, explaining that he had managed to find another boggart hidden in the castle. This was what they were going to use for practice.

"The boggart will turn into a dementor for you," he told her. "When it does that, it'll have the same characteristics as an actual dementor, only less...severe, for a lack of better words. Casting the patronus on a dementor shaped boggart in the middle of a lit classroom with me nearby will be far easier than doing the same on the real thing, but it's a good place to begin, especially considering your age and the current approximate size of your magical core."

"Oh, speaking of magical cores."

Lupin looked over at her. "Yes? What about them?"

"This is a light oriented spell, right?" said Violet. "Does that mean people with dark cores can't cast it?"

Lupin seemed a little surprised by the question. "I didn't realize you knew about the orientations of magic and magical cores. They don't teach that here."

"I-" Violet hesitated, not really sure what to say. She couldn't tell him she'd learned this from Voldemort. Although, she'd learned it from a book first, hadn't she? And then she'd learned more from Voldemort. She didn't have to tell him where the book came from. "I read it in a book someone gave me a couple of years ago," she said finally.

"Hmm." It was hard to say what that expression was supposed to mean, but Lupin just said, "Well, yes, the patronus charm is considered a light spell, which means people with dark magical cores will have some...trouble casting it, I suppose we can say. It won't be impossible, just harder than it would be for someone with a light or grey oriented core. Of course, since you're still young and your core is still growing, this restriction doesn't really apply to you. The biggest issue you'll likely face is that you might not have enough magic in your core to sustain the spell."

Violet nodded slowly. The book she'd been given had covered some spells, listing them as examples for the different kinds of magic, and now that she was thinking back, Violet was pretty sure the patronus charm had been one of the spells used as an example of a pure light oriented spell. Maybe she'd go back and have another look through that book.

Turning his attention back to the crate, Lupin rolled up his sleeves and pulled out his wand. "Now, have you read up on the spell?"

Violet nodded. "I did. The spell basically conjures a guardian of sorts, doesn't it? And it's like a shield that'll block the dementor. And it's made of the same things dementors feed on, but can't feel any negativity like humans can, which means the dementors can't actually harm it."

Lupin smiled. "Exactly that. Patronus' are cast with positive memories and intentions. To conjure one, you must focus all your attention on a single happy-a single very happy memory. The stronger your happiness towards this memory, the stronger your patronus will be. Or in your case, the stronger the chance will be for you to conjure one in the first place."

And this was where Violet's confidence wavered. She doubted she was going to be able to conjure the patronus on her first try, but if needing extremely happy memories was how she was supposed to do it, she wasn't sure she was going to be able to conjure it at all! Happy things were kind of a rarity in her life.

What memory in her life was happy enough to conjure up a patronus? She'd been thinking about this for days now-ever since she'd read about this particular thing during her research, but she still couldn't come up with anything. Honestly, her mind kept going back to one particular thing, but it wasn't exactly a good memory.

"Are you ready to try? Do you know the incantation?"

Violet nodded and pulled out her wand, her jaw set. She watched Lupin open the case, and watched as a dementor rose out from within it. She could already feel its effects, even though she knew it wasn't even a real dementor. But she was already beginning to shiver, and the flames in the lamps were flickering out one by one, and everything was starting to go dim.

She tightened her grip on her wand and tried to speak the incantation, but it was only seconds later that she began to hear the screaming again. The screaming, and the pleading.

"Violet!"

She jerked forward and realized she was laying on the ground, Lupin kneeling beside her, pale and concerned. He helped her up, and before Violet even knew it, she was telling him what she'd just heard, and that she was sure it was her mum pleading with Voldemort. If anything, the professor only paled more. He asked her then if she wanted to stop, but Violet refused immediately.

She'd never expected to succeed the first time, but she was hardly about to give up without really having had the proper chance to try. So she accepted and ate the Chocolate Frog that was handed to her, and then rose up to her feet, wand once more clenched in hand.

But things didn't go any better this second time. The same feeling filled the room, the same cold chilling her from the inside-everything was the same, except for the voice. The voice was different this time, belonging to a man instead of a woman.

"Lily, get to the kids! It's him! Run! I'll hold him off!"

And then she was waking on the cold, stone floor again, Lupin once more at her side. He helped her up again, and they sat facing one another for a long moment before Violet was able to speak.

"I-I heard dad, I think."

Lupin's entire body sort of...jerked in response to that. "You...heard James?"

She knew why he was asking, but only nodded in answer. They were quiet for another moment as she ate more chocolate, and the second she was finished, she said, "I want to try again."

"Violet-"

"I want to try again."

Lupin regarded her closely. "Alright," he conceded. "But only once more. At least for tonight. We can try again next week. Okay?"

"Yes."

And again they stood, and again the crate was opened, and again the dementor shaped boggart rose up from inside it, and again Violet tried her hardest to focus and cast the spell. But this time, something different happened.

A wisp of silver emerged from the end of Violet's wand, causing the dementor-boggart to recoil slightly. But Violet didn't even notice because just a second later, she dropped her wand with a scream of pain. Her knees buckled and she fell to the floor.

Alarmed, Lupin quickly returned the boggart to its crate and dropped down beside the girl. She was still screaming, her face contorted in pain, and her hand was trying to grip-no!

He scooped her up immediately and practically ran to the hospital wing, Violet's cries fading into quiet sobs, before silencing altogether as the pain caused her to finally, mercifully, fall unconscious.

"Poppy!"

"Remus? What on earth are you-" The medi-witch cut herself off the instant she saw the girl cradled in his arms. "Come on. Put her down here. Gently now. What's happened?" she questioned, even as she ran her wand over the prone figure, casting a diagnostic charm.

Worried and terrified, Remus explained what they'd been doing. "The first two times she passed out were due to the dementor's influence and nothing I didn't expect. I was reluctant to allow her to try a third time, but you know as well as I do that attempting to cast the spell itself is harmless-only draining. She was able to produce something the third time, just a shapeless mist, but then she started screaming. She was clutching at her middle, where-"

"Where her magical core is, yes, I see." Poppy frowned, casting a few more complicated spells. "The patronus certainly does require a lot of magic to cast, but there's no reason for it to have depleted her core to the point of pain, unless her core is smaller than it should be. Has she had trouble casting other spells?"

Remus shook his head, rubbing his hand over his face restlessly. "Not that I've seen. Minerva mentioned something in passing, but didn't seem to think it was odd. Filius has as well, now that I think about it. I haven't heard anything from her other professors, but she wouldn't have a need to cast very strong spells in any of her other classes yet."

Poppy made a thoughtful sound, which was quickly followed by a sound of surprise, and then confusion. "What in the world...?"

"Poppy?"

She hesitated, more out of confusion than anything else. "I can't be sure, but...it feels as if there's something...attached to her magical core."

Remus frowned. "A-attached? What do you mean?"

"I...don't know," Poppy admitted. "This isn't my field. I don't have much experience with this sort of thing. Other medi-wizards wouldn't either, not on this sort of thing. I think our best bet here would be to get a goblin to examine her. They're the ones who deal with strange things like this. It's either them or the Department of Mysteries, and though the goblins charge a fair amount-"

"I'd much rather deal with the goblins." Remus didn't trust the Ministry at all, and didn't want to deal with them if he could help it. Especially if his precious Violet was involved.

Poppy nodded. "Then I'll go contact them now. She's going to stay unconscious, I don't doubt. It's for the best, in any case. Even with...whatever this thing is, sleep will help her recover, at least a little."

Remus watched her go, then turned back to his young goddaughter, a frown on his face. She looked as if she was sleeping peacefully, showing no signs of her earlier, excruciating pain, and for that he was grateful.

He wasn't entirely sure what Poppy meant when she said there was something attached to Violet's magical core, but as far as he knew, there really shouldn't be anything wrong with Violet's magic. There were diseases out there that could be behind this, but Violet, like Rose, had been vaccinated against all of them before James and Lily's deaths.

Whatever this was, was something that happened after that point. But 'attached'? What in Godric's name did that mean? What was attached? And how? And why?

The Sauron pov scene sort of just...happened. I actually wanted to write a scene with him and Crookshanks, but then I remembered that if Hermione's gone home for the holidays, she'd have taken the cat with her as well. Also, I appreciate the kind words and concern over my health, but most of it can't really be fixed, so yeah. Looking forward to reviews! Laterz!