Yo! Thank you for the concern over my eyes. I really appreciate it. I'll put an update to that stuff at the end of the chapter for those who are concerned to hear more about it. Anyway, thank you to all readers so far!

Just like after Halloween, Sirius Black was all the occupants of Hogwarts talked about for the next little while. Violet was no exception to that, though her words were far different than what others were saying. Because now that she had that nagging thought about Black's possible true motive, she couldn't stop thinking about it.

She spent an irritatingly long time focused on these thoughts, to a point where it even started affecting her school work, which honestly seemed to bother Hermione more than it did Violet-though it certainly did bother her too. Still, it was incredibly frustrating having so many thoughts and questions, but being unable to truly understand them.

She told both Theodore and Hermione about these thoughts and suspicions she had, but while curious and confused, neither of them had much insight on what was going on either, which wasn't exactly surprising. Because really, if Black hadn't made any sort of mistake at all, and knew exactly what he'd been doing, and where he'd been going, and who he'd been standing over, what in the world did he want with Ron Weasley of all people...?

That was Violet's biggest question, and the one neither she, nor anyone else it seemed, had the answer to. Although it didn't look like anyone else was asking the same questions she was.

But even as the days went by, Violet still couldn't help but think that things here were somehow...deeper?-than everyone was thinking. Everyone seemed to think, seemingly without question, that Sirius Black was either after Rose, or Violet, or even the both of them, and not a single person questioned that-not even the Headmaster, as far as Violet knew.

Violet still had the thought in her mind that perhaps that wasn't quite the case, and decided that there was only one person in the castle-one adult in the castle, who might understand where she was coming from, or maybe even be able to give her more insight on why she had this particular nagging suspicion in mind.

So before her next patronus lesson with Professor Lupin, Violet stopped him before he could open the crate carrying the boggart in it, telling him she had something she really wanted to ask him.

Lupin immediately began locking the crate back up, not wanting the boggart to escape where neither of them were paying attention, just to be safe. "Of course. What is it?" he asked as he did this.

"Is Sirius Black really after Rose?"

Lupin froze. For a moment he didn't move. Then, making sure the crate was properly secure, he turned around slowly, a frown on his face. "Why would you ask me that?"

"...You were friends once, weren't you? He's Rose's godfather, and you've mentioned you were friends with mum and dad. It's only logical you and Black were close too." She should have added that she knew he was her godfather as well, that she knew her mum and dad had chosen both him and Black, but something about the look in Lupin's eyes told her that that wasn't something she really ought to be bringing up just yet. She wasn't sure she even wanted to right now.

"We were...close once, yes," Lupin said slowly, clearly thinking out and weighing each word carefully before he said them out loud. "Your father, Black, and I, along with a boy named Peter were once close friends-a long time ago now. It's-it's not worth dwelling on any longer. ...Why do you believe Black isn't after your sister?"

"He nearly attacked Ron, didn't he? How could he have possibly mistaken the boys's dorm for the girl's? Especially since he probably wouldn't have been able to get into the girls' dorms anyway? Aren't the girls' dorms warded against men or boys or whatever?"

Lupin frowned again, but didn't look all too bothered by what she was suggesting. "He spent twelve years in a small cell that was heavily and constantly guarded by dementors. It isn't difficult to assume that his mind isn't...isn't all there anymore."

But Violet wasn't convinced, and sat down on a nearby desk. "That doesn't make sense though," she protested firmly. "He's sane enough to break out of Azkaban-being the first to do so, apparently, and he's sane enough to travel all the way to Hogwarts. He's sane enough to get into the castle, and up to Gryffindor Tower, and into Gryffindor Tower, but he's too insane to figure out he'd gone up to the boy's dorm when the goddaughter he's supposedly trying to kill is a girl, and very likely sleeping in the girl's dorm?"

"There's no way to know how a killer's mind works."

Violet didn't buy that either though. "Anyone can kill. I don't think him being a crazed killer means very much here. I think he's a lot more sane than people are giving him credit for being."

Lupin's frown only deepened as he looked at her. "...Then you're under the impression he had a reason for going into the dorm he did? Is that what you're saying? What reason would he have to want to attack Ron?"

Here was where Violet had no actual answer, and here was where she found herself to be most confused. Everything else could be explained in some way, either to support her thoughts or disprove them, but why Ron of all people? There were two or three other boys in that same dorm room, right? So why choose Ron out of all of them?

"I don't know," she said honestly. A bit annoyed with herself for even bringing the topic up in the first place (especially since doing so hadn't really even led to anything), she stood again and pulled out her wand, moving into her usual position for these lessons. "Maybe he just doesn't like Weasleys. Maybe he thought Ron's obnoxious snoring was annoying. Maybe he just wanted to put his sick rat out of its misery. Who knows what he was after?" She shoved her hair out of her eyes, then said, "You can open the crate. I'm ready to star-um, are you alright, Professor? You look really pale all of a sudden."

Lupin blinked, as if having been startled out of his thoughts. "N-no, er, it's fine, I'm fine." He cleared his throat. "You're ready to begin?"

Violet frowned and cocked her head, but nodded and tightened her grip on her wand, turning her attention back to the crate before her. She was determined to do this today. It'd been long enough since she'd begun practising. How much longer could it possibly take to properly summon a patronus?

As it turned out though, today wasn't any better than any of the previous days. Once again all Violet was able to produce was a bit of vague, silvery vapour, which only annoyed her even more. It was unfortunate that she couldn't practice this particular spell on her own whenever she wanted-mostly for her own safety, but this was seriously starting to get frustrating. She felt like she was making no progress at all! Was she really going to be able to do this?

The next few days were mostly quiet. People still occasionally spoke about Black, but even that talk had finally started to die down. Violet herself still often thought about Black and what was going on, but she'd mostly turned her attention back to her classes, or was simply hanging out with Theodore. Hermione was always so busy that she was rarely free to do much even on weekends, so unfortunately, they didn't see her very much.

Really, Violet was still wondering how Hermione was managing to get to all her classes. Even after she dropped divination, which honestly wasn't much of a surprise because Hermione had been quite vocal in her dislike and disdain for the subject, she was still taking so many classes, some of which still overlapped with one another.

Theodore seemed to have a suspicion about what was going on, but since he wasn't entirely sure just yet, he kept that suspicion to himself for the time being.

The only new news that came around was that Hagrid was having a hard time thanks to Lucius Malfoy. He wanted Buckbeak to be executed, and Hagrid, naturally, wanted to avoid that. Rose and Ron were apparently helping Hagrid deal with that, and Violet honestly hoped it worked. Draco Malfoy's idiocy was not worth the horrible price of the death of an innocent animal.

As the Easter holidays approached, the temperature finally began to rise, but with the third years saddled with far too much homework for some reason, none of them were even able to enjoy the new, nice weather, which was truly unfortunate. One thing that surprised Violet though was the number of older Slytherin students who approached her, offering to tutor her in various spells and potion brewing that they thought she would like to know, and figured she would be capable of actually learning right now.

Always eager to learn, Violet accepted the offers with little thought, starting to learn a fair few charms, hexes, jinxes, potions, and a few other things that she decided could come in handy at some point...

Things didn't change very much even after classes started up again after the break. There were still occasional whispers about Sirius Black, but most of the students seemed to have moved on, having found more interesting things on their minds. Like the upcoming Quidditch match, for example-the final match of the year actually, that was pitting the Slytherin team against the Gryffindor one for rights to the Quidditch Cup.

The rivalry between the two Houses only grew more intense as the match drew closer, until even students from both Houses who weren't interested in Quidditch were getting cornered and assaulted in the corridors. Violet thought it all to be kind of idiotic. She liked Quidditch too, of course, and certainly wanted Slytherin to win the Cup, but attacking people like this? That was just stupid and childish. Worse than childish, really. And she told Theodore just that when they were seated in their common room one evening some days later, expressing her disdain with the way everyone seemed to be acting recently.

She didn't realize that a number of the older Slytherins overheard her and began spreading her words and opinion around among themselves. Violet did notice that the attacks from most of the Slytherins stopped a few days later, mostly only taking place in self-defence, but she had no idea it was because of her-because of the respect some of them held for her.

That respect was still mostly because of her being a Parselmouth, but they were sure she was going to get stronger. Maybe she hadn't noticed it yet, but many of them-the seventh years in particular, had already sensed a strange change in her magic. It felt stronger. she felt stronger. It was a fairly subtle change so far, but they knew it was only going to improve over time. They felt like it was almost a guarantee that by the time she was their age, she would be the most magically powerful student in the castle-easily even stronger than a number of the professors. It wasn't a matter of if, in their opinions, just a matter of when.

The final Quidditch match in May was...interesting. No one watching (or playing) expected a clean match at all, but it was surprising that both teams were matched with the amount of cheating they did. Really, neither team could blame the other, claiming the other had cheated and they hadn't, because both teams very clearly did and everyone saw it.

Violet was rooting for Slytherin to win, of course. Though the Weasley twins were indeed her friends, and were part of Gryffindor's team, she was still a proud Snake, so naturally, she wanted her House team to win.

It was a close match, very close, the two teams evenly matched and tied when it came to the score too. It was clear that the Seekers catching the Snitch really would be the only thing letting one team win over the other. But Malfoy and Rose were evenly matched too, and the match was really starting to drag on.

In the end and by mere inches-literally, Malfoy managed to catch the Snitch and thus, led Slytherin's team to not just a victory, but also the Quidditch Cup. The members of their House exploded with cheers, and though Violet wouldn't admit it, she wasn't any different.

She approached Malfoy herself a little while later, once they were all back in Slytherin's common room, celebrating the only way they could when Snape was their Head of House.

"Congratulations, Draco," said Violet with a smile, setting her hand on his shoulder. "That was a good match. You played pretty well." Rose was a good Seeker, so Draco managing to get the Snitch before her was actually pretty impressive.

Draco just sort of stared at her for a few seconds, and then began to preen, clearly pleased with her attention, especially as it was positive attention. But he didn't really say anything to her, mostly because he wasn't quick enough and Violet stepped away, rejoining Theodore.

Because she'd turned her back to him, Violet didn't notice Draco's grey eyes lingering on her back, his cheeks a faint pink that was barely visible in the not so amazing lighting that existed in the dungeons.

Unfortunately for Violet, the high of her House winning the Cup was the last bit of happiness and excitement she got for a while. Exams were rapidly approaching, and Violet had to put most other thoughts out of her mind so she could focus on her studies. She wasn't going to risk failing.

Exams themselves went...okay. Not the best, not as good as Violet wanted them to go, but she supposed that was her own fault for slacking off and spending too much of her time focusing on Sirius Black over the past few months. She was going to have to make sure she paid more attention next year, because though she was sure she was going to pass everything, her grades weren't as good as she generally expected them to be.

But just as Violet made that promise to herself, the promise to focus on her studies, Theodore approached her and the expression on his face had Violet quickly realizing that she was about to break the promise she'd just made, at least for the remainder of this particular school term.

"What's happened?"

Theodore stopped in front of her and frowned. "How'd you-?"

"You have that look on your face. The one you get when you find out something weird that you don't understand."

He cocked his head, expression turning confused. "That's an expression people make?"

Violet shrugged and flashed him a grin. "I don't know about other people, but it's definitely an expression you make."

"Oh. ...That's-that's kind of weird." He gave his head a shake, then said, "But anyway, you're right, I did find out something weird-from your sister and Weasley."

"Them again, huh? What's wrong with them now?" Because really, there always was something strange going on with those two, especially this year with Black and all.

"The divination professor, Trelawney, apparently made some kind of prediction or something when your sister was doing her practical exam with her. From what she was telling Weasley, it was something about the Dark Lord's servant breaking free tonight and rejoining him and making the Dark Lord stronger." Theodore frowned at his own words. "It was something like that. They seemed pretty shocked, so it didn't come across as like, a joke or something they were just saying."

"Y-yeah, I..." Violet trailed off and bit her lip, unsure of what to say. She didn't care about divination at all, in any of its forms, whether it was magical means or Muggle, and she certainly tended not to believe in any of it, but... What could she even think about this?

Trelawney was a fraud anyway, but this was a damn weird...prediction to spout off on the spot, especially to someone like Rose, who was known as the Girl-Who-Lived and all, and whose enemy was the Dark Lord. This would affect her directly, and not in a good way. Even Trelawney should have realized that. So why would she make something like this up? But even if she hadn't and this was, impossibly, a real prediction, then what it implied was...well, Violet wasn't entirely sure whether it was good or bad. It would be bad for many, of course, but for her, she didn't really know.

But the bad and strange news didn't even end there. Just a moment later Neville hurried over to them, looking out of breath.

"Violet! I-I'm sorry to interrupt, but-"

"Whoa, hey, calm down, Neville. Catch your breath."

Neville did so, hunching over, hands braced on his knees as he tried to calm his breathing. After a moment, he straightened back up. "I-I just heard from said Hagrid's hippogriff-Buckbeak-he's going to be executed today!"

"T-today!?" That certainly surprised the other two. They'd heard that Hagrid had lost his appeal, but they hadn't thought the Ministry would actually go through with executing Buckbeak-didn't they have more important things to do? And why today? Why so suddenly?

"Yeah," said Neville with a nod. "Hermione said she'll meet you in the Entrance Hall, because she wants to see Hagrid before it-it happens. I told her I'd tell you."

"Alright. Thanks, Neville. I'll go meet up with her. Are you coming?"

"No, that's okay, I still have to tell Hannah." With that Neville hurried off, looking worried again.

Once Neville was out of sight, Theodore turned to Violet. "You're going, then?"

"Uh huh." Violet brushed her hair out of her face, and frowned. "I know Hagrid doesn't like me as much as he does Rose, but I still feel really horrible about this. I wish Draco hadn't been so stupid. This wouldn't be happening if it wasn't for him." She sighed deeply. "Are you coming too?"

Theodore shook his head, and scratched his chin awkwardly. "No, I don't think I will. Hagrid may not mind you, but he really doesn't care about the rest of us Slytherins. And since I'm Draco's friend, and Draco's the one who's put him in this position..."

"Ah." Violet understood. "Maybe it would be better if you didn't come."

"Yeah. I think I'm just going to go take a nap. I'm dead tired. I stayed up way too late studying last night." He certainly looked tired, dark circles under his eyes.

With a short laugh, Violet waved her friend off with a smile and then made her way through the castle alone, heading down to the Entrance Hall where she spotted Hermione standing and waiting by the doors.

She greeted Violet with a shaky smile, her hands wringing nervously. "I know we shouldn't be going outside, but-but-"

Violet just nodded. "I know. We can't just leave him alone. Buckbeak-he didn't do anything wrong, and it's stupid that this is happening anyway! I can't believe he has to die over Draco being a stupid git!"

That was all they needed to say on the matter. Mostly because they weren't sure what else they could say. This entire situation was incredibly unfair and incredibly biased against Hagrid, especially since Lucius Malfoy had done the complaining. It was obvious that no matter what Hagrid said or did, the Ministry would side with the Malfoys over him. That was unfair too. And the worst part of it all was that an innocent animal was going to lose its life.

Was there really nothing they could do? To help Hagrid? To help Buckbeak? As it turned out, Violet and Hermione weren't the only ones with that thought in mind. At Hagrid's front door they encountered two others-Rose and Ron. They weren't surprised.

Even more unsurprisingly, they argued, but it was a very brief one this time, before they decided to just put their differences aside for the time being. After all, they were all here for the same reason. Hagrid protested at all of them being there, but seemed too upset to truly care, and simply let them all into his hut, sobbing all the while.

None of them really seemed to know what to say or do, all four of the students feeling saddened and awkward. Ron offered to make tea, shrugging and saying it was what his mother always did when someone was upset, when the girls all looked at him in confusion. Well, at least he was trying, and had more to do than the rest of them.

He was in the middle of doing as he'd said, when he cried out suddenly in surprise. "Scabbers!"

Violet and Hermione both looked at him, but it didn't take them long to understand why this was so surprising. Apparently the rat, who everyone knew had been rather under the weather recently, as Ron mentioned it multiple times over the past few months, had vanished. Ron had been under the impression that he'd either run off or been eaten by one of the cats (specifically blaming Crookshanks, though Hermione vehemently denied it) in the castle. But here he was, hidden away in Hagrid's hut for some reason.

They were distracted by this new discovery for a while, too distracted until Violet caught a glimpse of movement out of the corner of her eye and looked out of the nearest window. She gasped in surprise, quickly moving out of sight of the window.

"Violet?"

"Dumbledore's coming!"

Rose peered out of the window too, and paled. "That executioner from the Ministry's with him! And Fudge too!"

"Yeh need to get outta here," said Hagrid quickly. "All four of yeh."

"But-"

Hagrid shook his head forcefully. "I don't want any of yeh here for-for Beaky's... Yeh don't need to see it. Get outta here and get back to the castle before yer all caught!"

Hermione was the first one to move towards the back door, Violet following after her. Rose and Ron were more hesitant to leave, but they soon followed too, and it was Rose who pulled out her Invisibility Cloak, insisting they all attempt to hide under it if possible. A bit caught off guard, Violet was only able to raise a brow.

Rose scowled. "If one of us gets caught, then we all do," was all she said to explain.

And that was certainly true enough. If Rose or Ron got caught, they were definitely going to make sure Violet and Hermione did too. And if Violet or Hermione got caught, well, it was pretty likely that Rose and Ron would as well. The only way this was going to end well for them was if they all managed to sneak back to the castle without being noticed, and they knew that.

So they struggled to hide under the cloak, Ron having to stoop down slightly due to him being a bit taller than the rest of them, and they slowly and awkwardly began making their way away from Hagrid's hut, Ron trying to keep a grip on his pet rat, who was squirming around annoyingly. Violet glanced over at Buckbeak tied to a post in the pumpkin patch, and felt a strange flutter in her chest. Was he really about to die? Was this really the last time they were going to get to see him?

"Walk faster!" Rose hissed.

Too upset to argue, Violet just did as told and sped up, wondering if there was anything she could have done to stop this from happening. Could she have spoken to Draco about it? What about his father? Really, it was too late now, but she couldn't help but feel like she'd failed somehow. She barely even knew Hagrid or Buckbeak, but even then...

Some distance away from Hagrid's hut, about half way back to the castle, all four of them heard a familiar sounding wail and froze on the spot, heartbroken. That was it, then. It was done. Buckbeak was gone forever.

That's it for next chapter should cover the rest of third year. I actually went back and read through the entire fic again from the beginning, and it's annoying because I'm noticing so many edits I want to make. I won't do that now, because I know that if I do, I won't continue for ages, so I guess I'll wait until I get super stuck or finish, but doing some editing is something I'd definitely like to do at some point in time. Looking forward to reviews! Laterz!

*This is about my eyes, so just ignore this bit if you don't care. It's been a few months since the last update, and a lot's happened since then. There was a period of time where I was taking five or six different kinds of eye drops maybe fifteen times a day, but fortunately the dosage has been lowered to two kinds of drops, both of them taken twice a day. My eye pressure has mostly regulated. It should be between 18-21, and for a while was 40 (which was causing the intense pain), then dropped to 4 (which was also causing pain), then rose to 9, and as of a few days ago is sitting at 16, so that's getting better. The inflammation in both of my eyes is completely gone, which has made my eye specialist very happy. But the nerve at the back of my left eye is very swollen and scarred. I had an MRI done a week or so ago to make sure there was nothing there pushing against my eye (like a tumour or something), but that came out normal, so it seems I'm still a bit of a medical mystery, because no one seems to know why I even have this problem in the first place, especially considering my young age. I have arthritis, and have since I was twelve, but it isn't bad enough to be causing the eye stuff, and I don't have any diseases of any kind (I've been checked for basically everything at this point). My mental health isn't any better or anything, and isn't likely to change, but I'm trying to be hesitantly hopeful that this year will be better than the clusterfuck that was 2018. I truly hope all of you guys are doing better than I am, and have a good year too.