July 1991

Violet didn't notice Muime was trying to get her attention until she appeared 'above' her. There was only like a month and a half left before she started at Hogwarts, so she wanted to finish altering her clothes! and also she wouldn't be able to see Master Walter as much while she was at school, so she had a couple different painting projects going on too. But she was waiting for everything to dry properly before she came back to them, so at the moment she was embroidering one of her shirts, laying on her back on the carpet, an ad break playing on the radio.

Muime's feet must be a little bit 'above' Violet's head, leaning over a little to give Violet a crooked-eyebrow look. "Oh, sorry, d-didn't hear you."

"I thought not, you looked really wrapped up in it. Sorry to interrupt, but your mam's just finishing up dinner."

"Okay." Violet poked her needle through the fabric, pinning her loose thread in place, before setting it aside. "I'll be down in a minute."

With a quick smile, Síomha swept up out of her sight, by the time Violet got back up onto her knees she was gone. Before getting up to go, she gathered up her beads and stuff into her tray, so someone didn't accidentally kick them and send them flying all over — that didn't seem like a super likely thing to happen, but just in case. She laid her half-finished shirt over the back of her desk chair, the tray of beads going onto its spot on the desk. Before moving to go, she picked up her dress from where she'd left it on her bed, pulled it on over her head. There was really no telling if they had the windows closed up downstairs, and sometimes someone would come over to ask if she wanted to do something, and people always acted funny when they caught her underdressed, so.

Lasairín had been kind of...clingy, ever since April or so. Violet did know why — Lasairín was continuing on to academy level at an Ollscoil, but she was going to Hogwarts, so they weren't going to go to school together anymore. That was sad, and Violet thought Lasairín was trying to cram in as much friend time as she could before they had to say goodbye for months, without getting in the way of painting and other stuff that Violet was doing. Which made sense, she got it, and she didn't mind doing stuff together as long as they could, so. She didn't mind that Lasairín or one of the other neighbour kids might be showing up while they were still downstairs having dinner, it just meant Violet had to put on clothes first.

It smelled really good downstairs! Part of it was just because the windows and doors were open — she didn't mean just that the curtains weren't covering them, but actually open, letting a summer breeze thick with green and flowers and baking bread — but also the air was thick with rich cooking meat and herbs and brown butter and mint...and black pepper, which she didn't like as much. (It made her sneeze.) There was also a faint creamy berry-y smell that she was pretty sure was dessert, but that was quieter, like it was hiding, you could hardly tell.

But of course it smelled great in here, Mum was an amazing cook. Really, Violet thought she was even better than she'd been when they started...which she guessed made sense, since she got lots of practice.

"Go ahead and sit down, darling," Mum said, pouring a few glasses of wine. Three this time, but she transfigured out the alcohol for Violet when she did that — not all of it, but enough that the aftertaste wasn't too bad.

"It's a wine day?" Violet padded up to the middle chair, which was usually hers. When she climbed up onto it, getting a better look at the table, it was obvious she was right: the other two settings everything was put together on the same plate, but the one in the middle had some things separated out onto their own.

Muime liked to have a proper hearty Sunday dinner, often stews or at least something with a nice thick gravy. Apparently it wasn't uncommon for poorer Gaels to only have meat on Sundays — or at least beef or mutton only then, sometimes they got chicken or fish or something during the week — it was a whole tradition some people had. So, that was what Muime grew up with and was used to, and Mum played along, but also made it more fancy than Violet was sure Muime would get growing up, with nicer ingredients and more herbs and spices and stuff, because she could and why not. It became a routine pretty quickly after Muime moved in with them, it was just what they did now.

(The Sunday routine also usually included Muime going to church, but she went alone — Violet wasn't sure if she and Mum were invited, and also she thought it was maybe rude to show up if you weren't the right religion? She never asked, didn't want to offend anyone.)

There was a little oval-shaped plate with some kind of meat — mutton, she thought — cooked until it was falling apart, alongside some strips of carrots — the ones from the garden, they were purple! — both streaked with gravy and speckled with little flecks of herbs. Then there was a separate bowl of mashed potatoes (a normal colour, not from the garden), with another dollop of gravy. (Violet liked potatoes, but she didn't like when the mushiness got all up in the meat, so, separate.) And then there was a little plate that had a few berries and a couple slices of apple — those were from their garden! — and then another little plate with a piece of bread — super fresh, it was still steaming a little. (Mum baked their bread too, with Nola's help, because awesome cook.) The settings to both sides, the fruit was on their own little side plates, but everything else was together on the same big plate — also their potatoes weren't mashed, instead chunks mixed in with the meat and carrots, oh, and Mum skinned her apple slices for her too. Violet also thought the grown-ups' dinner had more black pepper, she could see the little specks, and there were also little streaks of green mint sauce criss-crossing over the stuff, eeewwwww...

She liked mint just fine, of course, but putting it on lamb was still slightly weird to her — it was a dessert or drink thing, not a main dish thing. And the potatoes! with the gravy! That was just weird. But Mum knew what she liked well enough not to put it on her food, she just had to not think about what they were eating and it was fine.

"Yes, it's a special day today."

"Is it?" She didn't think it was anyone's birthday or anything... "Oh! Did, did, did you figure out the w-wedding day?" Last she heard, they still didn't know when that was going to be — there were details to work out, apparently (all they said when she asked) — but once they told Violet it wasn't a secret anymore, everyone knew it was going to happen now.

Though, some of the neighbours and kids at school were a little weird about it. Not, like, really mean or anything, but... Violet got the feeling that Cassie and Síomha being together was fine, but once they were actually talking about getting married, people started thinking that was weird. Which, she guessed it was, kinda, since the law said they couldn't so they kind of had to cheat, but obviously the law was stupid and wrong. The adults were weirder about it than the kids, mostly they just asked when the party was going to be, and when she thought she was getting baby siblings — asked without really thinking, because sometimes the other kids seemed to forget where babies came from.

Violet was asked more than once who was the mum and who was the dad, which...obviously they were both mums? She didn't understand the question. Maybe, like, most married couples were a man and a woman, so people kind of assumed that was how all married couples were supposed to work, so they kind of thought one of them had to be more mum-like and the other more dad-like? But, that didn't work either? Muime almost always wore trousers and the like, and alchemy was a very science-y sort of career, which felt kind of like boy things to Violet...but she was the one who'd actually be having the babies. Mum did the duelling thing, and the Blacks didn't but most people thought of fighting as a more boy-ish thing, and also she had all the money and Muime would be taking Mum's name when they married...but also Mum dressed super girly most of the time, or at least way more obviously feminine than Muime, and she did all the cooking and stuff. So, like, she couldn't say one was the mum and one was the dad, because it didn't work like that? obviously?

It was very confusing, but Violet was pretty sure that was just because everyone else was confused about it. They were both the mum, obviously, it was a stupid question.

But anyway, it was so cool that they were getting married, and Violet was getting two mums now, and then there were going to be baby sisters and stuff, she was soooo excited when she stopped to think about it. She was a little impatient for it to happen already? She didn't know what they were waiting for...

"No, not yet," Muime said, with a tense something on her voice. Irritation, maybe? Maybe whatever it was that was slowing it down was annoying her as much as it was Violet... "These came in for you, earlier." Muime picked something up off of the counter, and handed it to Violet — a pair of envelopes, made out of the nice, heavy, rough paper that magic people called parchment (despite not being real parchment). Each had a name and address written in plain, legible cursive, the ink green and shimmering.

Mr Harry Potter
The Southwest Bedroom
9ú cs Cluainísle 12
Caoimhe's Refuge
Westmeath

For a couple seconds, Violet just blinked at the address. Why was only the middle line in Gaelic? and why did it have her bedroom? Then she flipped the envelope up, looking at the one under it. As she did, she noticed the seal on the back holding the flap down, the wax magically coloured into a copy of the four-part Hogwarts shield.

Ms Violet Black
Ancient House (HLCN Black)
Leicestershire

Well, that address was way shorter and less specific. Also, "Why are there two?"

"I'm not sure," Mum said, coming around to set down the wine glasses. "Jamie and Lily would have gotten you a spot shortly after you were born. That would be this one," leaning over from behind Violet to point at the one addressed to Harry Potter. "Archie registered you under this name," pointing at the Violet Black one. "When he told me about it, I met with Albus to straighten it out — you do only have one spot at the school, obviously, under your legal name. The letters with the supply lists are sent out automatically, it's possible there was a mix-up and someone forgot to remove the second one from the student roster. I would have to ask Minerva, I think? Managing that is the Deputy Headmistress's job."

"...Oh." That was silly. While Mum and Muime sat down to her left and right, Violet went ahead and opened both of them, just to see. They were more or less identical. There was a supply list, which was exactly the same, and a reminder that she had a spot at the school and to owl them to confirm — a form letter, perfectly copied, the only different thing between them was the name. Or, there was a difference, actually, the one addressed to Harry Potter had a third slip of paper in it.

Ms Violet Potter —

A copy of this letter was sent to you under the name Black in error. You are registered to attend under your legal name.
I'm looking forward to meeting you in September — and pray you will be less of a trouble-maker than your colourful cousin.

— M McGonagall

That was kind of nice her, Violet guessed — that she was calling her Violet Potter, that is. She heard of Minerva before, Mum mentioned her as one of the people in the Order of the Phoenix, so she was one of the handful of people who knew who Violet was. Of course, she also knew Professor McGonagall as the really strict teacher who always got in arguments with Dora about what the right way to do transfiguration was. Violet thought they were kind of both right? Like, Minerva was trying to get Dora to do transfiguration the way everyone else in the class was taught, and like she'd need to do for exams and stuff, but metamorphs were cheaters and very good at transfiguration, and Dora was stubborn, so she did things the way that made sense to her and basically just ignored the lessons. She only got an A on the OWL because of it, because she did really badly on the written test...but Minerva let Dora into her NEWT-level class, even though she normally only took people who got at least an E. Because, see, she knew that was the only reason Dora did badly, and was trying to help her do better next time, even though they didn't get along...which then just made Dora more annoyed, because Minerva was being even more strict with her, trying to get her to actually do her homework and stuff.

She sounded nice to Violet? like she was trying to help. But her colourful cousin was super silly and stubborn sometimes, so she got why Dora might not appreciate it.

"Willow, lovely, your dinner's getting cold."

"Oh! R-rr-right, sorry, distracted..." Which would be sad, because it looked so good! The meat practically fell apart when she squished it with her fork, smoosh, smoosh...

Nobody said anything for a couple minutes, quietly eating, Violet glancing over at her letters every once in a while. Too bad about the uniform, plain black robes were boring — she'd definitely have to do something with them. Was that against the rules? She was pretty sure Mum said at some point that there wasn't really a dress code, the uniform was just a tradition that stuck around, so, if she did mess with them she wouldn't be breaking a real rule that was written down anywhere. Some of the teachers might not see it that way, though. She was supposed to get three robes, she could play with one of them first and see if anyone said anything.

She already had the first Standard Book of Spells by Goshawk, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Scamander, and One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Spore. Muime said the Spore book was good enough for beginners, but it was a little dated — the one Violet had had been Mum's copy when she was in school, and it was still the same thing as the new ones. (Violet checked it against Dora's copy, just to be sure, apparently they never needed to change anything.) Mum had looked at Dora's copy of the Emeric Switch transfiguration book, but said he was a "boring unimaginative hack", and she said Bathilda Bagshot's books were really bad. Not, like, extremely wrong or anything, just bland and dry, and political.

Mum admitted, when she asked, that history was always political — her problem wasn't that Bagshot's writing was political at all, just that she disagreed with Bagshot's politics. Which, okay, but Violet didn't really care, she still didn't get politics...

"Did you want to get a pet?"

"Huh?" Instead of answering out loud, Mum reached over to tap at one line toward the bottom of the supply list, saying they could bring one (and only one) pet with them. "Oh! Um... I dunno. I l-like cats, but I, but, but I d-don't want to forget to feed it? Or something."

"Fair enough. Think about it, you don't need to decide until we go shopping. Ah," leaning around Violet, "I can't remember, a chéile, are you allergic to cats?"

Caught in the middle of a bite, Muime let out a little hum, shaking her head. "I'm not, but you're supposed to be careful having cats around infants."

"Oh? I've never heard that, but I'll take your word for it." Not the first time Violet heard Mum say something like that — Muime had a big family, lots of cousins and stuff, she'd been around babies more than Mum had. "Violet will be away at Hogwarts much of the time for at least a few years, and I can ward a cat out of anywhere we don't want it to go."

"Can you anchor that in something as small as a bassinet?"

"Easy."

"Sure, then." Nudging Violet a little, Muime said, "I know you like petting the wilderfolk cats when they get friendly. Are you sure you don't want one?"

"Well, a little." She did like cats, all soft and warm, and the purring felt funny. Funny in a good way, she meant. "Um. I r-r-rr-really don't want to forget to feed it, though! I lose track of things sometimes..."

"There are plenty of mice and the like at Hogwarts," Mum said. "Cats can mostly take care of themselves in a place like that. And if it comes down to it, the elves won't let any of the students' pets starve — the cats are guests too."

A curly, teasing note on her voice, Muime added, "And think of it as practice — you might need to look after a little sister one day."

"...Oh. Okay then, we can get a cat." Not that that was a bad idea just on its own, she did like cats, but when Muime put it like that, well. Oh crap! She'd have to remember to put her paints and stuff away, those were probably poison for cats! And, like, beads and stuff, so it didn't swallow them. But those were also good things to remember for there being a baby in the house too, so, maybe just something she should get better at doing all the time.

She was kind of jealous of Master Walter all of a sudden, having a whole house he could leave his art stuff around and not have to worry about it...

There was some talking then, mostly about how Violet going to Hogwarts would work. Muime hadn't gone to Hogwarts herself, and didn't really know anyone who did — almost nobody in her family even went to academy at all, and the ones who did went to an Ollscoil, which wasn't a boarding school. They would do all the shopping at some point, in London — they had to do it London, the school arranged some things with shops there — they'd pack everything up and Violet would leave on the train on 31st August. And she would stay there, at the school, until Christmas break.

...That didn't sound very nice, when she thought about it. She liked their house and, and, Muime had just moved in and everything! Okay, not just moved in, it was months ago now, but still. And Violet would be away, in a new place, with a lot of new people — like the kids from the silly tea parties she kept going to, and some of them were mean, but also a lot of older kids — and she wouldn't be able to see Mum and Muime for months, or Lasairín and Damhnait and the other neighbour kids, and, and...

It just sounded sad, was all. She kind of felt like a baby, even thinking it in her own head, but...she didn't want to be away from her mum that long? She would miss her! They decided she was going to go to Hogwarts a long time ago — her birth parents set it up, yeah, but Mum said she didn't have to go if she didn't want to, years ago now — and, living with Mum was still kind of new then? It was hard to remember, but Violet hadn't really thought about it that hard, just that it was the thing she was supposed to do, since it was where her parents went and she already had a spot and everything, and...

She didn't not want to go. It did sound like a fun place, from Mum's and Dora's stories, and, well, her parents did go there, some of the same professors who taught them were still teaching and everything. She felt a little bad about this sometimes, but Violet didn't have a lot to do with her birth parents? She did learn Potter stuff and everything, but...they didn't seem quite real to her, she guessed — not like Mum and Muime and Dora and Aunt Andi and Uncle Ted did. When she thought about family, she thought about them. Jamie and Lily were just names to her, people she heard about but didn't have anything to do with. Most of the time, that was fine — they were just names to her, after all — but sometimes she felt like she was...doing something wrong. Like she should care, more than she did, but just didn't, and it was bad for her to be like that. Not that there was anything she could do about it, really — it was a little late for Violet to get to know them, with them being dead and all.

Her parents had wanted her to go to Hogwarts. Going seemed like the right thing, somehow.

And she didn't want Susan to go without her! She had a really hard time with the Seer stuff, and Susan said she was worried that Hogwarts was going to be...difficult. Going to school was kind of hard to begin with, since there were so many people there, but at Hogwarts she couldn't take a break, go back home to hang out in the woods somewhere until she calmed down. Hogwarts also happened to be the most haunted place in Britain, with all the ghosts around — Susan had avoided talking to any ghosts since Violet triggered her Sight, wasn't looking forward to that — and there had been several actual battles fought in the valley over the centuries. As long as Violet was going too, she could give hugs and stuff when Susan was having a bad day, and transfigure clean food for her — she still kind of felt like Susan's Seer stuff was her fault, so it was the least she could do.

She was going to go, she wasn't changing her mind about that. It was just, she hadn't really thought before just now how lonely it was going to be.

Oh! It was a boarding school, yeah, Violet was supposed to stay there, but Mum and Muime could come visit at any time — that wasn't so bad then. Mum said parents normally didn't, not because they weren't allowed, it was just the culture at the school. The other kids might tease Violet over it, but she didn't care! There was nothing embarrassing about loving your mum, and three or four months or whatever was a long time...

"Of course, this means we have a deadline coming up."

Violet was just finishing scooping up the last of her potatoes, blinked down at the potato- and gravy-streaked plate. "What for?"

"If we do nothing, people are going to learn who you are when you start at Hogwarts, no matter what."

"...Oh." Once she was done eating her bite of potatoes, she set her fork down, and slumped back in her chair. She didn't think of that. She should have, that was obvious, but. "How is– How– How, how— What are we g-g-g-going to do?"

"That depends, darling. This is your life — how do you want to handle it?"

Violet thought about it for a moment, her fingers tapping at the counter, but she didn't know, really. "Um. I don't– I, I'm not g-going back to being Harry. I want to still be a g-g-girl, I mean."

Nudging Violet's leg with hers a little, Muime said, "It'd be a shame to waste all that embroidery work on your clothes." That was a silly reason to want to keep being a girl, obviously, but Violet giggled anyway — because, well, yeah, kinda...

"I'm not going to lie to you, Violet," Mum said, wincing a little, her voice going low and grumbly, "some people are going to be very stupid about that. We have talked about this before, remember, that some people are stuffy about this sort of thing and might not understand. I'm not saying you shouldn't be whoever you want to be, just that you should be prepared for some confusion and teasing from your classmates."

"I remember, I'll be okay." Violet could just ignore people if they were being mean, she did that at holiday and tea parties with the noble kids all the time.

"If it crosses into bullying, I want you to go to either your head of house or Severus immediately, whichever is more convenient at the time. Even harmless prank jinxes can be very dangerous for metamorphs, we'll want to nip that sort of thing in the bud."

"I know, Mum, I'll be careful." She almost added I promise, on reflex, before realising she couldn't promise to be careful literally all the time she was at school, so making that one was a bad idea.

"Your legal name will still be Harry — we can fix that when you're a little older — so some of your professors might be stubborn about calling you the wrong name. I'm also not sure whether your head of house will agree to put you in the girls' dorms right away. If any of the staff are making trouble for you about it, write to me, and I'll sort them out. Okay?"

Violet smiled a little at the sharp edge on Mum's voice. She didn't actually want Mum to go threatening people who were mean to her, but that she would was kind of a nice thought anyway, made her feel all warm and fuzzy. Leaning over in her chair, she bonked her head against Mum's arm. "Okay. Thanks."

"So, how is this going to work, exactly?" Muime asked. "Is Willow just going to show up at the school and...?"

Suddenly sitting straight up in her chair, Violet gasped, her eyes wide. She had an idea of, just, showing up at school, and, "There's the Sorting, right, with the Hat? They c-call you up?"

"Yes, right before the Feast. Why?"

"I was thinking, I'm g-geh-g-g– take the train like normal and, and, and when they call for Harry Potter, take my turn."

Mum was giving her a look, trying to seem flat and serious, but her lips were twitching, trying not to smile. "So, you want to make it a surprise, then?"

"Mhmm! I p-p-pictured Draco's face, it's so funny! he'll be ssoooo angry!" She got a mental image of it again, and she couldn't help giggling a little at the idea, squirming in her chair. It was maybe kind of mean, but she couldn't help it. Draco was mean, and he deserved getting messed with a little — especially since this wouldn't actually hurt him, he would just be annoyed that she hadn't told him. Because he thought he was important and should be told important things, but he was mean, and she didn't like to talk to him, so obviously she wasn't going to tell him important things. Maybe he'd finally get that she didn't like him after that, and stop trying to sit next to and talk to her at parties and stuff. Her friends at those things didn't like him either, it was so annoying...

She did feel a little guilty at he thought of hurting Draco's feelings on purpose, but also she kind of just wanted to hang out with her friends on the train and not have to worry about people being stupid about the Harry Potter thing. It wasn't only to be mean to Draco...though that was kind of a bonus.

(He was awful to Tracey! and Millie! It made her so angry and sad whenever she thought about it.)

"Well, I can hardly judge you for wanting to mess with your cousin a little," Mum said, smirking. "Some of the pranks my cousins pulled on each other when we were little... I'll leave it at, Draco should feel lucky you're much nicer than me. You don't even like hexing people."

"I don't want to hurt him!" Especially since her magic did weird things sometimes, she actually wasn't supposed to hex people at all. Mum had her test a couple on her, a while ago now, the ones that did things that were supposed to stick were permanent, like always — that wasn't a big deal for a metamorph who knew what they were doing, Mum just shifted them away, but normal people would be in trouble. "I only— He's so mean, and, and, most people are too polite or too scared of what their p-p-parents will think if they mmmake trouble, so they're never mean back. No, no, they— Nobody ever does anything about it."

"So you're going to use this to teach him a little lesson, right, I get it." That's not quite how Violet would put it... "And it's probably easier to not have to explain it to people, and just have them find out — some people are likely to be difficult about it, and I imagine your stammer wouldn't make that easy on you."

"Oh, yeah, that too..." If people asked her questions about why, she wouldn't even know how to answer that. Well, why she didn't tell people was easy — since Harry Potter was famous she was kind of in hiding, for safety reasons, and also Mum wanted her to have time to get better from the Dursleys without people bothering her about Harry Potter stuff — but they might have questions about being a girl specifically, and that was a weird thing to ask someone. Thinking about it, the only thing that came to mind to say was, I don't know, why are you a girl/boy? which probably wasn't helping.

"There are some people you should tell, before it ends up in the papers," Muime said. "The neighbour girls, especially Lasairín and Damhnait, I don't think they'd be happy to hear about it from someone else. Telling Master Walter would just be polite."

"Okay, I can do them." Master Walter wouldn't be a problem — she bet he'd just ask if that affected her ability to paint at all, give her an annoyed look for wasting time, and then go straight back to whatever they were doing — but telling her friends might be...awkward. She should probably do it when it's almost time to leave, so the news doesn't have time to spread and ruin her surprise. Maybe, have them over for lunch or tea or something, and tell everyone all at once then. With Susan! Susan was better at talking to people than Violet — she didn't have the stammering problem, and also Violet was weird, it could be confusing trying to get everyone on the same page sometimes — and also she already knew about the Harry Potter thing, so that made it easier. Unless Lasairín got jealous Violet had told Susan but not her...

Oh no, Lasairín was going to get so jealous...

Violet was distracted worrying about that enough that she missed most of something Mum said — joking about Muime obviously being the nice one, she was pretty sure. "Only by comparison, mo churaidh áthasúil." There was a funny, low, sliding tone on Muime's voice when she called Mum my happy warrior, Violet thought there was maybe a joke she wasn't getting. "Willow, lovely, I'd also like to tell my family. If that's okay with you."

"Um...okay?"

"If you're not comfortable with that, you can say so."

"No, it wasn't that, um..." Violet shrugged. "I, I, I was only thinking, I n-never met your family. I never r-r-r-rrreally thought, you know, if they know about me..." She hadn't met nobody in Muime's family — one of her cousins dropped by a couple times since she moved in — but almost nobody, and, it wasn't something she normally thought about.

Muime let out a little noise, Violet wasn't sure what, a look crossing her face. After a second she leaned over, her arm coming around Violet and pulling her in against her side. Not sure what this was about, but hugs were nice, Violet leaned into her, turning her face more into Muime's shirt — she smelled like books and rosehips, a faint mintiness that came through the laundry. "Of course they know about you, lovely, I talk about you all the time, have for years. I think I annoy some of my friends with it, a little bit. I should have— We should have dinner with my family someday, before you leave for Hogwarts."

Oh! Okay, then? Muime and Mum were getting married, so they'd kind of be family too, so that really seemed like the thing to do. Violet never thought about it that much, Muime's family didn't come up very often...

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Mum asked.

"Honestly, at this point, I don't have any better ideas. We might as well give it a try."

Blinking, Violet straightened a little, so she could frown up at Muime. "Ideas? What for?"

Muime hesitated for a second, Mum actually started talking first. "Síomha wants her family to be at the wedding, and for her father to participate. It's one of the issues we're having setting a date, in fact — Síomha's father, er..."

"...hates your guts?" Muime asked — almost sounding like it was joke, but only almost.

"...Something like that, yeah."

Violet pouted. "But, but, why? You're nice, and you're happy — you're happy r-rright?" she asked, looking up at Muime.

Smiling, she shook her head a little. "Yes, Willow, I'm happy."

"So, why would he be, be, be, mean about it, I d-don't g-g-guh-get it."

Muime glanced over Violet's head, the two of them trading a silent look. "Part of it is simply because your mam is a Black — the reputation of the nobility can be...complicated, with common people. Also, he doesn't like that I was fifteen when we met."

"...Why?"

Mum made a sort of low harsh huff, didn't know what that was, Muime just kept smiling, turning a little crooked. "Never mind, lovely, grown up stuff." Ooohhhh, it was a sex thing, okay — yeah, if Muime had been fifteen when she and Mum 'met', then Violet could guess why Muime's dad didn't like Mum much. Sometimes Violet forgot how much younger Muime was, since Mum was a cheating metamorph, they looked about the same age... "But anyway, I think meeting them will help. It can't hurt, at least."

"All right, we can try. Ask your mother if she'd like me to bake a cake or something. I'll bring the wine regardless."

"Common people, Cassie — mead or cider."

"Right, right, of course. I knew that..."

"We haven't even arranged it yet, and you're already nervous."

"Nervous is an exaggeration. I simply want it to go well."

"I can tell. It's sweet."

"Don't have to make fun, Síomha. Speaking of going well," Mum said, talking a little fast and firm, changing the subject. "I was thinking, it's all well and good if you want to have your little surprise at the Welcoming Feast — I'd ask for photos of the look on young Draco's face, but I don't think you'll be able to manage that. But the problem with revealing it like that is, all the little kids at the school are going to write their parents that night, and they're going to gossip, and it'll be announced in the Prophet a couple days later. We have no idea what they'll end up writing, how much they'll get right and how much they'll just make up."

Violet didn't see right away what the big deal with that was, but she got that other people cared more about what was in the newspaper. "Okay? What about it?"

"I think it might be a good idea to do an interview with someone, and have them write up something ahead of time, to be released the morning after you arrive at school. A nice wholesome sort of thing, is what I'm imagining. We'll have to tell them about how all this happened, but I can handle that part — you can just talk about school and your friends and your art and embroidery, even your puzzles. Have a few pictures taken, with all three of us here in the house, maybe..."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Muime asked, her arm tightening around Violet a little — didn't seem like she meant to do that, must be thinking something in there. "The Prophet can be... Well, you know how the Prophet can be."

"I was imagining one of those profile pieces they do in Witch Weekly, actually. Those are even released on Sundays, perfect timing."

"Oh, I guess Witch Weekly might not be so bad. It'll have to be someone you can trust to go easy on us — and who won't leak it early, and ruin Willow's surprise. I don't suppose you know anyone who writes for them?"

Mum snorted. "Nobody I would tolerate having in my house for longer than five minutes. I do know someone who knows plenty, however. Darling, is it all right if I ask Narcissa about this?"

It took Violet a couple seconds to realise Mum was talking to her. "Oh! Um...will she t-t-tell Draco and r-rruin the surprise?"

"I don't have to tell her at all. I might say I'm working on the public reaction to the engagement announcement, want someone to do a flattering, saccharine piece on our family here. If she points me at someone trustworthy, I'd tell them alone. They'll agree to keep the secret, to stop us from going anywhere else — this story is going to sell so many papers," Mum drawled, low and crackly.

"Okay, then. I, I, I'll have to, to pick a pr-pretty dress, for the p-p-pictures!" Violet didn't get her picture taken very often — magical cameras were big and loud and smelly, made her all itchy and sick — and Witch Weekly was a magazine, with big, nice, colour photos. And everyone was going to see it, she should make sure she looked nice in it! Oh, and make sure her bedroom and the art room looked okay, they got kind of messy sometimes...

Laughing a little, Muime's arm squeezed around her. "This girl's got her priorities straight."

"You should have a nice dress too! Mum," she reached over, looping her arm around Mum's elbow, tugged at her, "Mum, buy Muime a nice dress for the p-pictures! Or! You don't wear skirts, um, pretty other things! Whatever! Yeah!"

"You heard our daughter, Cassie: buy me pretty whatever."

"Well, if it's our daughter saying it, I guess I can't argue." Mum reached over with the arm Violet hadn't grabbed on to to ruffle at her hair — she pouted, but didn't try to do anything about it, just turned her face into Muime's shirt again. "As long as I get to take them off you later."

"Mm, I don't know if that's a wise idea. I've learned you have to be careful with fancy clothes."

"I assure you, I can be very careful..."

"Heeeyyy," Violet whined, "you're being sexy again."

Mum and Muime laughed, both said something about being sorry — they weren't sorry, not really. But that was fine, it didn't actually bother Violet when they got like this. She thought it was sweet and a bit silly more than anything.

They'd finished their awkward little group hug there at the counter and had just gotten up to clean up when the back door suddenly banged open, startling Violet badly enough she dropped a plate— "Willow! Come on, we—" —which skipped off the edge of the counter and shattered against the floor, sending shards and slivers of ceramic skittering everywhere. There was a squeak from the open door, Lasairín's hand clapping over her mouth. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to..."

"No matter." A swirl of Mum's hand brought all the pieces of the plate zipping over into a little pile, and then a sharp snap of her fingers repaired it in a blink. The plate floated up to her hand, Mum set it down with the other soiled dishes. "Good as new."

Lasairín was staring at Mum, blueish-greenish eyes wide and sparkly. After a few seconds, she said, "It's so cool how you do that." Mum winked, then turned away, whispering with Muime over the dishes.

Violet decided she'd let the two of them handle the cleaning up — she was feeling a little jittery still, she'd probably just drop something again. "Hi, L-Lasairín. What is it?"

"I was just, er..." Lasairín seemed to shake herself, turning away from Mum to grin at Violet. She was still noticeably tanned from her week in Sicily, little dark freckles staring to appear along her cheeks and over her shoulders — supposedly freckles needed sun to come out right, they rarely got enough in Ireland for Lasairín's to be very obvious. "Hi! Sorry about barging in like that, I didn't mean to make so much noise."

"It's okay. Something g-g-going on?"

"Yeah, me and some of the others are going down to the lake! Do you wanna come?" They did go down to play by the water sometimes, but not everyone always actually swam — mages didn't have bathing suits, and a lot of people were too shy to swim naked. (There were also rules about when and where and with whom it was proper to do, but those mostly didn't apply to little kids.) But there were other things they did down there, there were swings and stuff, and little boats they could play around with, all kinds of things...

Violet should probably go put on shorts first, in case it was windy, but, "Sure! Mum?"

"Do you have an adult going with you?"

"Mum and my Aunt Máiréad."

"I think I'll go down with them too," Síomha said to Mum. "Do you need to change, Willow?"

"Yeah, I'll be down in a minute."

"Take your Hogwarts papers up with you." Oh right, almost forgot about those...

On the way up the stairs, she noticed Lasairín staring at the bundle of not-parchment in Violet's hand, her lips quirked to the side and her eyebrows dipping in a pout. Annoyed at the reminder that Violet was leaving soon — Lasairín was going to miss her while she was away at Hogwarts.

(That was only fair, because Violet was going to miss her too.)

Last scene of the pre-Hogwarts arcs, woo. I know I said earlier there were three more, but I decided to cut the other two, so.

I'm going to need a little bit to plan the upcoming arcs, I have no idea how long that will take. Updates will resume whenever I'm ready.