Yo! Wow, it's been almost exactly six months. Nice. My muse came back so I wrote most of this yesterday. Last year was garbage thanks to my brother's death and his first death anniversary is coming up next month, so, y'know, not looking forward to that. But hey, this is a pretty long chapter-I usually aim for 4k words and this one is close to 7k, so that's neat. Thank you to all readers so far and thank you very much for all the kind words regarding my brother's passing. I really do appreciate it.

Everyone was still talking about the Triwizard Tournament the next morning. Violet wasn't surprised.

The amusing and slightly sad thing about it was that all talk about the Quidditch World Cup and the raid that had taken place after it had stopped immediately. It was almost as if everyone had completely forgotten about it.

Sometimes it really did seem like they were only able to focus on one thing at a time. Were their attention spans that short? Violet decided not to think about that for too long. It was far too depressing.

"Do you think your sister will try to enter the tournament even with the age line?" asked Theodore curiously as he and Violet made their way over to the Great Hall for breakfast.

Violet scratched her chin, glancing over her shoulder at the seventh-year Slytherins who were following a few respectful paces behind them. It looked like bodyguard duty was still a thing, even without Marcus Flint around. Interesting.

"If I know Rose half as well as I think I do, she'll probably give it a shot," said Violet with a shrug. "I'd bet she'd enter for sure if she was of age. She'd be pretty disappointed if she wasn't chosen though. Seems obvious that she likes being the centre of attention, not that she'll make it past Dumbledore's age line."

Theodore made a thoughtful sound. "Y'know, I can't say it'd be good if she was chosen. The Triwizard Tournament is meant to be really dangerous and competitors need pretty strong magic to get through all the tasks. I don't think she fits that bill, to be honest."

"Fair point," said Violet, amusement in her voice. "From what I've heard, Rose hasn't exactly been doing great in her classes. Except for Defence Against the Dark Arts. But what else do you expect from the Girl-Who-Lived?"

Entering the Great Hall, Violet noticed that the storm from last night had finally ended. That was probably good, she thought as they settled themselves at Slytherin Table and grabbed their preferred breakfast foods. It was only then that she noticed it.

Seating arrangements at their table had changed.

While students in the other three Houses sat wherever they wanted at their tables, Slytherin Table was a bit different, with everyone sitting mostly in order of their years-an old tradition their House had never shaken off for some reason.

Seventh years sat at one end of the table, with sixth years next to them, followed by the fifth years, and so on until they reached the first years at the other end of the table.

As fourth years, Violet and her classmates sat somewhere around the middle of the table, and yet, the ones sitting closer to her were sixth and seventh years, not her fellow fourth years. What had caused this sudden change?

Violet couldn't help but wonder if it had anything to do with the Death Eater raid at the World Cup.

Had they decided to keep a closer eye on her because of that? Had Flint contacted them after the raid and told them to do it? Were they doing it because they thought she was in danger? Was it the opposite instead? Were they doing it because they'd lost whatever bit of trust they'd had for her?

Or were they doing it for a reason completely unrelated to her?

"Violet?"

She blinked, startled out of her thoughts, and saw Theodore sitting in front of her, looking at her in concern. "Oh, sorry, were you saying something?"

"Are you alright?"

Violet nodded quickly. "I'm fine, just-just thinking about something. You said something about the tournament, right?"

Theodore didn't look convinced but seemed to decide to brush past her rare inattentiveness. "I was asking if you'd want to enter the tournament if you were of age."

Violet frowned thoughtfully. "You know, I actually don't think I would."

Surprise crossed Theodore's face. "Really?"

"Yeah." Spooning some cereal into her mouth, Violet chewed as she considered how to explain what she was thinking, and after a moment said, "I've already lived a pretty...weird life. I guess there is a small part of me that wants recognition for once, but at the same time, I really don't like having people pay too much attention to me."

She ate some more cereal, then added, "I think I'd much rather prefer watching the tournament if I'm being honest." Then she smiled wryly. "Maybe I'll finally get a peaceful school year for once."

Theodore laughed. "Knowing you, probably not."

Focused on her breakfast, Violet didn't notice the glances exchanged by the other Slytherins sitting around her.

Herbology that morning that rather gross thanks to the bubotubor puss, but Violet couldn't say Care of Magical Creatures after that was much better. The Blast-Ended Skrewts Hagrid introduced them to were certainly...something, that was for sure.

They were tiny things (for now), about six inches long and wriggling around in wooden crates. According to Hagrid, the males had stings on them and the females had suckers on their bellies, but he wasn't actually sure and Violet didn't exactly want to get a closer look. The fact that they smelled like rotting fish didn't help matters either.

The rest of the class, Slytherins and Gryffindors alike, were about as enthusiastic as she was. Even Rose and Ron, usually the first to jump to Hagrid's defence, seemed hesitant to try to feed the strange creatures when they were instructed to.

Violet couldn't even be happy when class ended because Hagrid made it clear that they were to try to raise the Skrewts for as long as they possibly could that year. Suddenly, no one found Care of Magical Creatures to be a very fun class anymore.

Double Ancient Runes that afternoon was a lot more interesting, in Violet's opinion. A lot less gross, too. Now that they were starting their second year in the class, they were finally going to start learning real runes. They'd focused mainly on theory last year, along with a handful of extremely basic runes, so this was much more exciting.

Violet had skimmed through her textbooks, mostly just looking at images of all the runes, but she still hadn't spotted any that looked like her rune. There were one or two that seemed a little similar, but she thought the difference between them was too big for them to be related.

She knew she could be wrong about that, of course, so she noted down these similar runes, but she didn't focus on them too much. She knew she needed to. She knew it would be better if she did. The problem was that she was still scared about what she would find out. She was still scared that her rune could be something terrible.

Violet knew this fear was stupid as well. At the end of the day, it didn't matter whether the rune was good or bad or anything in between. It was what it was and there was nothing she could do about it.

But she was still scared.

So, despite being interested in runes, despite wanting to learn everything about them, she avoided looking too hard when it came to finding out about her own.

There was a chance she would regret it, but she just wasn't ready to find out yet.

The castle was still filled with chatter about the Triwizard tournament three days later on Thursday and Violet hadn't decided if she was tired of it or not. But when she got to Slytherin Table in the Great Hall that morning, she realized that her fellow fourth-years were talking about something else.

Defence Against the Dark Arts.

They had their first Defence lesson that afternoon and according to Parkinson and Davis, the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs, who'd already had their first lesson two days ago, couldn't stop talking about how great it'd been. They said they'd heard many students from the other three Houses talking about how crazy their Defence lessons had been and how great Moody was.

The Slytherins were the only ones who didn't agree.

They didn't like Moody and nor did they think he was particularly good or talented. Of course, with so many of their relatives imprisoned in Azkaban because of the man, was it any wonder they hated him?

Violet couldn't help but wonder how Moody was going to handle the Slytherins. Not just the fourth years, but all of them. Her Housemates weren't exactly secretive when it came to their disdain, and some of the older students could be rather...violent. Most of them were on the smart side, so she doubted they would attack him or anything, but it was still worth considering.

She was curious though, less about Moody and more about what kind of teacher he would be. The Defence position didn't have the greatest track record, after all.

Quirrell had been pretty inconsistent in his teaching, and Violet figured that had something to do with Voldemort living on the back of his head. She couldn't say he hadn't taught them anything, but he certainly hadn't taught them as much as he should have.

Lockhart, of course, had been utterly incompetent, teaching them nothing related to Defence and focusing on the nonsense written in his books. The only thing they'd learned from him was to not set pixies loose and how not to duel.

Remus had been the best professor they'd had by a long shot, and he'd alternated between teaching them defensive spells and about dark creatures, but there was only so much he could teach them in one year, especially with the number of days he needed to rest leading up to and after the full moon.

What would Mad-Eye Moody be like? From the sounds of it, he was closest to Lupin, only more intense, which maybe didn't bode well for the Slytherins. Still, she had nothing against him and was eager to learn as much magic as possible. If he was a competent teacher, then he'd be mostly fine in her books.

She wasn't disappointed either.

No one paid much attention to their Transfiguration notes that morning, much to McGonagall's irritation, and the Slytherins and Ravenclaws gathered outside Moody's classroom that afternoon, many of them chattering eagerly or angrily.

The door opened on its own a moment later, so they all entered, finding Moody standing at the front of the room, his magical eye surveying them as they entered and settled at their desks.

Once everyone had taken their seats, Moody began going over the register, his normal eye on the list of names while his magical eye swivelled around from student to student as they declared themselves present. While he was doing this, Violet noticed something.

Moody's magical eye seemed to linger on many of the Slytherins. Not all of them, just the ones she knew whose parents or close relatives were Death Eaters. Did he automatically not trust them because of that? She'd heard he was incredibly paranoid, so she supposed she couldn't put it past him.

The strange thing about this was that his eye lingered on her for so much longer than it did anyone else. So, she hadn't been imagining it during the Welcoming Feast. He'd been watching her then, and he was watching her again now. But why?

Violet was in Slytherin, yes, but it wasn't as if she'd done anything dark, right? He had no reason to be suspicious of her. Or was he watching her because he thought she was in danger, surrounded by potential Death Eater snakes while she was the innocent sister of the Girl-Who-Lived? Both options were possible, and there could be other reasons as well. It was hard to say.

"Now," said Moody as he set the register down, "Dumbledore's filled me in on how you've spent the last three years in this class and from the sounds of it, your education in terms of Defence is lacking. A lot. Quirrell taught you the basics of the basics, Lockhart had no business being a professor, and Lupin did well to teach you about dark creatures. But you still know nothing about dark magic. You know nothing about curses."

A few of the Slytherins scoffed here, and Violet nearly rolled her eyes at their reaction. They were only fourth years. She doubted they knew much dark magic if any. And even if they did, it wasn't like any of them were strong enough to use it.

She still remembered the book Quirrell, or rather, Voldemort had given her for Christmas in her first year. According to the book, everyone had one of three magical cores: Light, Grey, or Dark. But they were born with Grey cores, and that core had the possibility of changing to either Light or Dark as they got older.

Considering they were all fourteen or fifteen, their cores were still definitely Grey, which meant it wasn't going to be easy for them to cast extremely Light or extremely Dark magic. That was just how it was, as much as her Housemates wanted to pretend otherwise.

"According to the Ministry," Moody continued, ignoring the Slytherins' reactions, "you're not to know what dark spells and curses look like until you're in your sixth year. Until then, you're to learn counter curses. I think that's horseshit-"

The class broke out into giggles at the word.

"-and luckily for you, the Headmaster agrees with me. So, we'll start with this." Moody surveyed them closely. "Which spells does the Ministry classify as the worst spells a wizard can use?"

As expected, Hermione's hand shot into the air before anyone else could react.

"Granger?"

"The Unforgivables," Hermione replied promptly.

Violet frowned. That sounded familiar, but she couldn't place it. Honestly, she'd probably just heard her Housemates talk about them in the common room or something. If these spells were really that bad, most of them likely knew about them and no doubt had parents or other family members who'd even used them before.

"That's right," said Moody with a nod. "The three Unforgivables. Using any of those spells for any reason will land you in a cozy little cell in Azkaban for the rest of your life. What are the spells?"

Hermione didn't move, even though Violet was sure she knew the answer, and instead, it was Draco who raised his hand first.

"Malfoy?"

"The Imperius Curse."

Amusement crossed Moody's face. Or at least, Violet thought it was amusement. He was so scarred it was a little hard to tell what expressions he was making. "Yeah, your father would know all about that one, wouldn't he? Gave the Ministry a hard time during the last war."

Violet's eyes widened. Had he just insinuated Draco's father was a Death Eater? He wasn't wrong or anything, but she couldn't say she'd been expecting it. Even Draco looked surprised. Well, for a few seconds at least. Then he just looked angry.

Moody ignored him though and, taking a large, black spider out of a jar, he demonstrated the imperius curse. It wasn't a pleasant sight. He jerked his wand this way and that, and the spider followed its movements, dancing on Moody's desk or leaping into the air.

"You do whatever you're told to do when you're under this curse," Moody told them. "If you've a strong enough will, you might be able to question the orders and break out of the curse, but there aren't many who can. The strength of the one casting the curse matters too. The stronger their magic, the stronger the curse will be."

That...didn't sound great, Violet thought, but it did explain why so many wizards had claimed they'd been under the curse during the previous war.

Voldemort was extremely powerful, so it was pretty unlikely that they would have been able to break free of the spell. Whether they were lying or not, it was a good defence, and it didn't seem like there was any way of proving the imperius curse had been used either.

"What's another Unforgivable spell?" asked Moody, and when Theodore slowly raised his hand, both of Moody's eyes locked on him. "Nott?"

"...The Cruciatus Curse," said Theodore, but there was something in his voice that had Violet and Hermione exchanging a glance.

Violet couldn't help but wonder if Theodore had already seen this particular curse firsthand. Was there a chance his father had used it on his mother before killing her? Violet couldn't put it past his father to have done just that. And considering Theodore had most likely witnessed the murder, well, he might have seen what had led up to that murder too.

"The torture curse," Moody explained. "The pain goes straight to your nerves. Feels like you're on fire on the inside and there isn't a damned thing you can do about it until the one casting it decides to stop. Not even the most magically powerful person in the world can get out of the cruciatus curse. Luckily for you, the weaker the wizard casting the spell, the weaker the curse."

Taking a second large spider, Moody demonstrated this spell too and Violet doubted she'd be forgetting the spider's pained shrieks anytime soon. Theodore stopped watching after a few seconds and even Hermione looked ready to be ill. Fortunately, or maybe, unfortunately, Moody released the curse and looked at them again.

"And the third Unforgivable?" he asked them.

No one raised their hand this time. A few cautious glances were exchanged, but nobody said a word. Moody didn't seem surprised. His magical eyes passed over them and his face twisted.

"The third spell," he said after a moment of tense silence, "is the Killing Curse." Taking a third spider, he set it down on the desk in front of him and raised his wand. "Avada Kedavra!"

With a bright flash of green, the spider fell dead. Violet's eyes were locked on the spider, but the only thing running through her mind was the green light. She heard Moody talking, but his voice sounded strangely distant.

"There's no blocking the killing curse," he said. "There's no stopping it. Getting hit by the curse means instant death no matter who you are. Or I should say it should. Supposedly, there's been one survivor. There's one person who got hit with this unstoppable curse and lived."

Moody didn't need to say a name. They all knew he was talking about Rose. Or, most of them did, at least. No one else in the room knew it, but Violet knew she was the real survivor. she was the one who'd been hit with the killing curse.

Knowing that was honestly uncomfortable. Knowing that this was the spell that had hit her and changed her life. Knowing that this was the spell that had killed her parents. Had they died just like that spider? Falling over dead before they even knew it happened?

She'd seen flashes of green lights in her dreams before, but she'd never put much thought into them because they were just dreams. But now she was starting to wonder if that light hadn't been Voldemort's killing curse from all those years ago.

Could she really have memories of something from that long ago? She'd been a baby, hadn't she? She couldn't remember anything else from back then, so why the green light? Or maybe she was just imagining it. Maybe it was just a coincidence.

But when Violet looked up, she saw with a jolt that Moody was watching her again.

Defence Against the Dark Arts hadn't been pleasant, but Violet had to admit it had been morbidly fascinating. She was definitely looking forward to their next class with Moody, but she was also hoping they didn't talk about the Unforgivables again.

But she didn't have much time to dwell on it.

She was on her way to the library to meet up with Theodore and Hermione, who'd gone on ahead of her when she'd realized she'd left her essay in the common room when she heard a tap on the nearby window. Violet looked over and, to her surprise, saw an owl on the other side of the glass. She opened the window to let it in and though she'd been expecting it to fly off, it remained where it was.

"Is that for me?" she asked, pointing at the parchment clamped in the owl's beak. The owl bobbed its head, so she took the note and watched as the owl unfurled its wings and flew off again, heading for the owlery. Frowning, Violet turned her attention to the note.

'Violet,

I've decided to head north again. Rose wrote to me over the summer and told me her scar was bothering her. Taking that and some of the rumours I've heard, I've decided it'll be better for me to be nearby. I'm worried about Rose, and you too, but Rose will be the one in the most danger if something happens.

Don't worry, I'll keep myself out of sight and won't get too close to the castle.

Padfoot'

Frustrated, Violet shoved the note into her bag and started for the library again. This was too dangerous. Why couldn't he see that? If he was spotted, the Ministry would be notified immediately and he'd receive the dementor's kiss. Why did he want to risk that? But the answer was already obvious, wasn't it?

Rose was in danger.

Was she really, though? So what if her scar hurt a bit? Was it really that important? Were a few seconds of pain really worth risking Sirius' safety? Violet knew he was an adult, but still...

Come to think of it, why had Rose's scar hurt anyway? Violet was the actual Girl-Who-Lived, so why had Rose felt pain? Sirius said had it happened over the summer-hadn't her rune started hurting one day during summer break as well?

Did that have something to do with the pain Rose had felt? Did Violet's rune and Rose's scar have some kind of connection? She didn't know enough about either to know for sure, but maybe it was something worth noting.

She frowned. Sirius had managed to write to her, even if the note had mostly been about Rose, but she still hadn't heard anything from Remus.

"She's hiding something from us again, isn't she?" asked Hermione worriedly.

Theodore and Hermione were seated at the table together in the back of the library. Violet had joined them a few minutes ago but had gotten up to find a book that would help her with one of the essays she had to write.

She'd been distracted though, barely saying more than a few words to them, and Theodore doubted she even remembered the name of the book Hermione had suggested she find.

"Yeah, she's definitely hiding something," Theodore said in agreement. "Again."

They'd already had a talk with Violet before where she'd promised she'd try to tell them things instead of hiding them, and while neither of them thought she was doing it on purpose, it still kind of hurt that she wasn't telling them.

Maybe they would have to talk to her again and be more reassuring this time. They wanted her to trust them the same way they trusted her. Maybe they just had to tell her that. Hopefully, the thing she was hiding from them wasn't anything too crazy, but still, her keeping it hidden couldn't be good for her either.

"We'll talk to her later," said Theodore.

Slowly, Hermione nodded, but the worry didn't leave her face. Theodore couldn't blame her. He was worried too.

It turned out that Theodore and Hermione had a lot more to worry about than Violet keeping a few secrets.

As the days passed, talk about the Triwizard Tournament only increased, to a point where even Violet was starting to look forward to it. It would be fun to watch, she figured, as tournaments generally were.

She told Sauron what was going on, because he was curious about the deep cleaning the castle was getting, and he sounded interested in watching the tournament as well, making her promise to take him to each task. In return, Violet made Sauron promise he wouldn't attack anyone, since the stands would be packed and the crowd would, no doubt, be loud. Sauron agreed.

Two weeks before Halloween, Moody once again did something unexpected in Defence Against the Dark Arts. This time, he'd gotten Dumbledore's permission to put them all under the imperius curse.

The class was excited to learn how to throw the curse off, especially after what Moody had told them about it, but Violet was a little more apprehensive, and she knew she wasn't the only one. Theodore seemed to be just as hesitant and even Draco looked rather tentative about the whole thing.

Moody went through the Ravenclaws first, but none of them managed to resist the curse even a little bit, and the Slytherins, who he put under the curse next, weren't any better. He didn't make anyone do anything crazy, sticking instead to mostly silly things, but Violet was still dreading for it to be her turn.

There was no getting out of it though, and a few minutes later, Moody turned to her and raised his wand. "Ready, Potter?"

She couldn't say no, so she just nodded and braced herself as well as she could, not sure what to expect.

"Imperio!"

The curse felt...surprisingly nice. It got harder and harder to think as Violet's mind started to go blank. Her body felt light and floaty, and she felt vaguely happy, though she couldn't focus enough to figure out why. Then, somewhere in the back of her mind, she heard a voice.

"Jump on the desk," the voice said.

"Don't do it," said another voice.

But why shouldn't I? She asked herself that, but the second voice was the one that answered.

"Because it's stupid."

And she couldn't argue against that, could she?

"Jump on the desk."

No, she decided. I'm not going to jump. That's dumb. Why should I jump on the desk anyway? "Gah!" Suddenly aware of her surroundings, Violet found herself on the stone floor with a skinned knee.

"Well done, Potter, you nearly fought it off!" said Moody, looking genuinely pleased. "On your feet. Let's try that again."

Violet didn't have the chance to refuse, or even understand what'd happened, and quickly found herself put under the imperius curse again. And again. It took four tries before she could fight it off almost immediately, much to Moody's glee.

Despite the pain in her knee, Violet figured it was probably a good thing. Being able to break through the imperius curse wasn't something to laugh at, after all. Like Moody had said the other day, there weren't many who could do it.

Two weeks later, on the thirtieth of October, students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang arrived at Hogwarts along with their Headmistress and Headmaster respectively. Madame Maxime seemed amiable enough, but Violet couldn't describe Karkaroff as anything less than shady.

The biggest surprise, however, was finding out that Viktor Krum, possibly the biggest Quidditch star at the moment and Seeker in Bulgaria's national team, was a student at Durmstrang. Quite a few Hogwarts students lost their minds when they saw him, and Violet was a little amused when she saw that Rose, Ron, and Draco were no different.

She was more curious than anything else, but she was certainly surprised. She knew he was good-she'd watched him during the World Cup, after all, but she hadn't realized he was still a student. If people were this excited just to have him in the castle, she couldn't imagine how they would react if he ended up in the Triwizard Tournament.

They had a large feast that night where Dumbledore explained a few more things about the Tournament and, more specifically, how to enter it. That was when he presented the Goblet of Fire, telling them that all they had to do was write their name and school's name on a slip of parchment and throw it into the goblet.

He added that he would be adding an age line around the thing though, so only those who were seventeen or older could put in their names. Violet figured that was probably a good thing, especially when she noticed the disappointment on the faces of many of the younger students.

They were dismissed after that and everyone headed for their common rooms, the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students leaving the castle to return to their carriage and ship respectively, where they were opting to stay.

For once, Violet took part in the gossip about who would be entering the tournament with Theodore as they followed the Slytherins back to the dungeons. Now that things were kicking off, things were getting exciting. Watching powerful feats of magic in a tournament was bound to be incredibly interesting. Maybe she would even learn new things by watching.

"Bet Flint would've entered if he was here again this year," said Theodore.

Violet laughed. "Yeah, I'm sure he would have. But I also bet he would've been banned from entering because it would mess with his schooling. He already had to do one extra year. I can't imagine the professors would be happy with him doing a second extra year."

Theodore snickered, and both of them were sure they heard a couple of the seventh years behind them doing the same thing.

Violet should have known better than to expect the lighthearted air to last very long. Barely twenty-four hours later, everything went to hell.

Again.

Students lingered around the Great Hall all day on Halloween, and when they finally entered for the feast and choosing that night, the excited buzz in the air was so palpable that Violet could almost feel it on her skin.

The feast seemed to go on for ages, and everyone kept shooting glances over at the Goblet of Fire and Dumbledore, hoping to see something happening, but nothing did until the golden dishes cleared themselves what felt like hours later.

Dumbledore stood and the buzz grew louder as he moved around the Head Table and got everyone's attention, a grin on his own face. And at that moment, the Goblet of Fire's blue flames started burning red.

"Ah!" Dumbledore exclaimed cheerfully. "Just in time!"

Everyone watched eagerly as flames shot up, and a slip of parchment flew out of the Goblet. Dumbledore caught it easily and glanced at it. There was a sudden hush in the hall, the air filled with anticipation.

"The Champion for Durmstrang, Viktor Krum!" Dumbledore announced.

The hall practically exploded into cheers and applause as Krum, who'd been sitting at the Slytherin Table with his schoolmates, got to his feet and approached the Head Table. Dumbledore pointed to a room to the right, and Krum made his way over, disappearing through a door.

Seconds later, another slip of parchment shot out of the Goblet of Fire, and Dumbledore caught this one as well.

"The Champion for Beauxbatons, Fleur Delacour!"

The response Fleur received was far more subdued than the one Krum got, but the only ones who looked remotely upset were her own schoolmates. She followed Krum's path, leaving the Ravenclaw Table and heading to the side room off the side of the Head Table.

As soon as she was out of sight, the Goblet of Fire burned red again, but this time something strange happened.

Instead of one slip of parchment, the Goblet shot out two of them at the same time. Dumbledore reached out, barely managing to catch them, but when he looked at them, his expression hardened. Suddenly, Violet got a very bad feeling.

"Rose and Violet Potter."

A hush descended in the hall, everyone wondering if they'd misheard. But they hadn't. After their names were called out a second time, the twins both stood and as soon as they did, there was an uproar. With her heartbeat pounding in her ears, Violet barely noticed, making her way up to the Head Table.

Dumbledore pointed at the side room in silence, nodding at Snape and McGonagall who were approaching. Violet just walked past them and Rose moved in half a step behind her.

The side room was kind of small, and Krum and Fleur were standing at the back near a large window. They weren't talking, but they turned when they heard footsteps.

"Do they want us back?" asked Fleur.

But neither Violet nor Rose spoke. Fortunately, they didn't have to either. The adults came in then, Dumbledore in the lead, but Snape, McGonagall, Maxime, Karkaroff, Bagman, and Crouch were all hurrying in behind him.

"Did either of you put your name in the Goblet of Fire?" asked Dumbledore, expression stern. He didn't look panicked, but he didn't look calm either.

"No."

"No!"

"Did you ask an older student to do it for you?"

"No."

"Of course not!"

"They must be lying!" Maxime exclaimed angrily.

"She's right," said Karkaroff, eyes flashing. "This is only an advantage for Hogwarts. I thought the point of the Goblet was that it was unbiased."

Krum's brow was furrowed, but Fleur's eyes widened. "But, they can't compete!" she protested. "They are only children! I don't understand 'ow this can be allowed!"

"...Did the age line not work?" asked Krum.

"The age line worked just fine!" McGonagall snapped. "This must be because of something else."

"This is definitely unorthodox," said Bagman, though he didn't look particularly worried. "But I don't believe there's anything we can do about it now."

"The second your names were chosen by the Goblet of Fire," Crouch interjected, "it locked you in a binding contract. Should any of you choose not to compete, you will lose your ability to use magic."

And there went all of Violet's thoughts about forfeiting. She'd been planning on pulling out of the tournament until Crouch had gone and said that. She didn't want to lose her magic over something like this, but at the same time, didn't being in the tournament mean risking her life?

The arguing started again, both Maxime and Karkaroff threatening not to compete, even though Crouch had just said that wasn't a real option. Violet doubted Fleur and Krum wanted to lose their magic either.

"Why would anyone enter the names of their names if not to give Hogwarts the advantage?" questioned Karkaroff with a scowl. "I see no other reason!"

"Oh, you don't, do you?"

The gruff voice caught them all off guard and they looked over, only to see Moody limping his way into the room, face hard and magical eye jumping from person to person.

"Have you managed to learn something, Alastor?" asked Dumbledore urgently.

"Aye. Seems like a confundus charm," said Moody as he came to a stop. "And a very strong one, at that. No fourth-year could have cast it. Bet even a seventh-year couldn't have done it. Not to something as magically powerful as the Goblet of Fire. The charm would've confused it and since their names were written on the same slip, the Goblet ended up choosing it just because it stood out."

"But why?" questioned Maxime.

"Attempted murder, maybe?" said Moody, though his expression didn't even flicker. "These are the Potter twins, after all."

No one seemed happy, though the complaints did stop. For a whole ten seconds, at least. Karkaroff opened his mouth and only managed to say two words before a very irritated Violet cut him off.

"With all due respect, Madame Maxine, Headmaster Karkaroff," she said, knowing there was a good chance she would regret saying this later. "You're making it very clear to me that you have very little faith in your Champions if you don't think they'll manage to beat two fourteen-year-olds with only four years of education."

Karkaroff's jaw snapped shut audibly and with a curse, he swept a confused-looking Krum out of the room. Maxine and Fleur weren't far behind, though Fleur at least threw Violet and Rose a concerned glance from over her shoulder. Bagman chased after them, and Violet heard him rushing to tell them about the first task.

Rose looked at Dumbledore. "Do-do I really have no choice?"

"I'm afraid not, Rose," said Dumbledore solemnly. Reaching down, he grasped her shoulders. "It's truly unfortunate, but the only options are to compete or permanently lose your magic."

"Well, what's done is done!" said Bagman as he returned to the room. "I've already filled your fellow competitors in, but the first task will take place on the twenty-fourth of November. We won't be telling you what the task is because it's meant to test your courage. Asking for help from professors is prohibited, so keep that in mind, and you'll also have to go into the task with nothing but your wands. No other items allowed!"

"...What the heck," Rose said in a whisper, although, maybe it had more to do with Bagman's inappropriate enthusiasm. But she let McGonagall lead her out of the room anyway once Bagman had finished explaining things.

"I do apologize, Violet," said Dumbledore, and he certainly didn't look happy, "but there is nothing we can do."

"I-" Violet hesitated, not sure what to say. "It's fine, Sir."

"Come, Potter," said Snape, setting a hand on her shoulder. "Let me escort you to the common room."

Violet nodded and followed Snape out of the room. She knew he was going to question her too and was probably waiting until they were alone. The Great Hall was empty and so was the Entrance Hall, but Snape still waited until they had entered the dungeons before he spoke.

"Did you enter yourself into the tournament, Potter?" he asked. He looked as stoic as ever, and Violet was actually glad for that. She'd been expecting anger.

"I didn't," said Violet firmly. "I didn't ask anyone else to do it either. I wanted to watch the tournament, Professor, not be in it myself."

"...You have never given me any reason to doubt you, Potter," said Snape just as they reached the entrance to the common room.

Violet blinked, surprised by the words, but when she turned to Snape, he was already gone. Well, she thought, that was unexpected. She hadn't thought she'd get Snape's support.

Was Moody right though? Was it really a murder attempt? But, when it came down to it, was there even a point in dwelling on the why or how? It was already over and done with and no matter who was behind it or what their motivation was, no one could do anything about it. There was no getting out of this.

As much as she hated it, Violet realized that all she could do was try to keep herself alive, both in the tournament and outside of it.

That's it for now. So, while I've barely started on the next chapter, I HAVE started writing the first task. I decided I wanted to change the tasks up a little bit because frankly, I can only write about the canon tasks so many times before I get sick of them. They won't be changing so they're unrecognizable, but they'll still be somewhat different.

Also, sorry Cedric. I went back and forth on who to put in the tournament for literally three years before choosing both of the twins. Oh, and for anyone sick of FFN's crap and who may not already know, I cross-post to AO3 if you prefer using that site. Looking forward to reviews! Laterz!