Children of the Gods

by inwardtransience

When the message came, there was little left of Cassiopeia Black in her — soon she would move on, shed her face and her name for another. But, at the last possible moment, she found a reason to carry on, the smouldering embers of her identity sparking to new life. Unfortunately, adopting the Boy Who Lived came with complications. (metamorphs, fairies, AU and very weird)

38. Violet Potter — V

When the ghosts flew through the wall overhead, and a bunch of the other kids started shrieking and laughing, Violet clapped her hands over her ears — that was too loud.

All of the new first-year students had been gathered together, and they'd floated across the lake on a bunch of little boats — the castle up on the cliffs over the lake, most of the valley in shadow but the towers still glowing in the sunlight, windows shining from light inside, it was pretty! — and into a cave, through a little dark hallway which led to a long staircase, zigzagging back and forth as it went up and up and up and up. After so many stairs, they reached the Entrance Hall — big and shiny and golden as usual, though Violet thought it might be even shinier than when she'd seen it coming up to have tea with Albus, given a good cleaning while the students were away for the summer. The Great Hall was through the big double doors just in there, but they didn't go that way, Violet and the other first years instead tucked into an empty room to the side. And it was an empty room, just plain grey stone, not really any decoration anywhere or anything.

Professor McGonagall was supposed to take over from there, but Hagrid, the man who led them down and across the lake and up here, didn't leave right away, looking over the crowd of children again. Violet didn't know what that was about — it seemed like he was looking for someone, but if he was he should be able to see them. Hagrid was huge! like, he had to be over three metres tall, and broad and thick, and with a gnarled fuzzy beard and long hair. He was so big that Violet kind of thought he might be part-giant? She knew that was a thing people could be but she didn't know much about it, there weren't really very many giants around anymore...

Anyway, eventually he left, kind of shooed off by Professor McGonagall, and then she was giving them a lecture about the houses, and the Sorting and stuff. Not a very informative lecture, once she was gone the kids immediately started chattering, a lot of it asking each other what the Sorting was exactly. People had been told all kinds of funny things, about needing to take an exam, or show off some skill for the school, or sing a song they made up on the spot, or wrestle a troll — no, silly, there wasn't anything like that! you just put on a magic hat and it told you were to go! Violet met him before, he was a little weird, since he was a magic hat and all, but it wasn't a big deal, don't worry about it.

She knew there was some little tradition where you weren't supposed to tell kids how the Sorting worked, so they'd be all surprised, but Violet thought that was kind of stupid? And also mean! Some of the kids were super nervous about it, but there was really no need to be. They just had to put on a hat, honest, that's all it was...

(The Hat Sorted you by reading your mind — Mum warned Violet to take off her mind-shielding ring first — but that was a little creepy, so she didn't mention that part.)

That conversation was interrupted by the ghosts showing up. Violet glared at them as they slipped back away through the wall, her shoulders all tense, her head fuzzy and the back of her neck prickling — this room was far too small for that screaming, did they have to surprise them like that?

"Hey look," Susan muttered, nudging her a little.

Violet twitched, blinked over at Susan. "Hmm?" Instead of answering she just nodded elsewhere in the room — pointing her attention somewhere without actually pointing, which was rude. Over that way, Draco and the tall boys, Vincent and Gregory (those Gs and Rs...), were talking with a few other kids, Draco looking a little...something. Violet didn't know what that was, faces were hard sometimes. "What?"

"I think he's looking for you." She guessed that kind of made sense, Draco had been looking for her on the train, and—

Oh! That's who Hagrid had been looking for, earlier! Violet! Or well, Harry Potter, she meant, but obviously Hagrid didn't know who Violet was. Trying not to smile too much, she raised her voice a little, "Hey Draco, are you okay?"

"Harry Potter's supposed to be here!"

"Oh well, I'm sure you'll find him!"

Draco scowled at her, annoyed — also, wow, his face was red. Violet noticed that it did that sometimes, when he was embarrassed or frustrated, he was super super pale so when he blushed it was more obvious than for most people. "Are you daft?" Well, that was rude. "Nobody's seen him! He should be in here with us."

"What if something happened to him?" someone asked, Violet didn't see who.

"I'm sure it would have been in the papers."

"I'm not, Dumbledore always said he was keeping where he was private, for safety..."

"Yeah, in that letter he sent into the paper he said it was a secret. Maybe he's too far away, and he couldn't get here in time?"

"Maybe he came early, and he's in there with everyone else."

"Maybe he's going to Beauxbatons."

"Maybe he's going to Durmstrang. My uncle says—"

"Maybe he died."

"Oh come off it, Harry Potter didn't die."

"How do you know? It's not like anyone's seen him."

As the kids went on and on in circles, the chatter in the room getting louder and louder, Violet frowned. Some of them seemed...kind of worried, actually. Harry Potter was super important and famous and everything, with that Hallowe'en and how much it meant to people. Obviously if he didn't show up when he was supposed to people might wonder about that. Some didn't seem to be taking it that seriously — they never met Harry Potter, so it wasn't personal — but a few kids even looked like they might almost start crying.

Violet hadn't thought of that. She was just trying to play a trick on Draco! to get back at him for being mean to her friends! She hadn't thought it might hurt anyone else...

She was starting to feel really bad about it, her shoes scritching against the stone as she shifted, her stomach twisting and words bubbling in her throat, biting her lip. She was just about to try to get everyone's attention to explain when the door creaked open again, and McGonagall waved them forward — it was time for the Sorting. Violet didn't stop feeling really bad, but it'd be awkward to get everyone's attention now, their group streaming back out into the Entrance Hall, she guessed it could wait until it was her turn.

(This was terrible, she felt awful — she was never playing a prank on anyone, ever again.)

Violet had been to Hogwarts plenty of times, and while she had peeked into the Great Hall before, she'd never actually been inside. Like the Entrance Hall, everything was made out of shiny off-white stone, with curly floral golden accents all over, the walls practically covered with glittery, almost Rococo-like decoration. It was kind of a lot, difficult to take in all at once — especially with how shiny it all was! all the stone and metal polished to glow, thankfully the only lighting was the hundreds and hundreds of floating candles overhead, because if it were too bright in here that could get really really bad. The decorations on the walls only went so high, Violet guessed because it could be difficult to keep it clean too far up there, the ceiling vaulted, little gaps tucked away way up there she guessed was for post owls to come in and out.

Down the Hall were four long long long tables, with benches on both sides of each, filled with dozens and dozens and dozens of students, from kids barely older than Violet to teenagers who were not quite grown up. Way at the opposite end of the Hall from the entrance was a table turned the other way, with chairs only on one side, facing the rest of the Hall — the people up there were all adults, must be their professors.

Oh hey, there was Albus, right in the middle! Violet waved up at him, getting a subtle little smile and a tiny nod in return.

Professor McGonagall led the kids between the middle two tables, way over to the far end, stopping just before the little open space between the ends of the tables and the steps up to the low platform the professors' table stood on. She waved for them to stay here for a moment, walked off somewhere to the side, probably going to get the Sorting Hat. The last bit of the tables over here were mostly empty, the older students leaving space for the new first-years to sit. By the coloured bits added to their robes, the Ravenclaws were at the table just to their left, the Slytherins behind them, and the Hufflepuffs to their right, the Gryffindors behind them. Nearby, sitting with an older boy in the mostly empty end of the Hufflepuff table — prefects, maybe? — Dora waved over at her, Violet waved back.

Soon, Professor McGonagall was back, setting the ratty old Sorting Hat in front of them on a little stool. After a couple seconds of tense, watchful silence, the Hat opened up, and started to sing.

He wasn't a very good singer — Violet was tempted to cover her ears, even, but she grit her teeth through it, trying not to be rude.

The song seemed to last forever to Violet, but it couldn't have been that much later before it finished. Thankfully, Violet's can't-tell-lies fairy magic only affected words, so she could still clap like anyone else, despite really not liking the singing. Once the (reluctant, half-hearted) applause died down, Professor McGonagall said, "When I call your name, step forward, have a seat, and place the Hat on your head.

"Abbott, Hannah."

While Susan's old friend Hannah slipped through the crowd to go up to the stool, Susan leaned closer to Violet. Her hand finding Violet's, squeezing, she whispered, "You okay?"

She was confused for a second, before she realised Susan was asking about, you know, everyone knowing who she was in a couple minutes. "I'll b-be fine. It, it, had to happen, sometime." At this point, she was kind of just looking forward to not having to carefully not-lie anymore...

Susan didn't say anything else, just kept leaning against Violet, holding her hand — they were getting a couple funny looks from people, but Violet didn't care, and she wasn't sure if Susan even noticed. It was only a minute or so before the Hat shouted, "Hufflepuff!" and the table to their right burst into clapping. That was really loud, with how many people there were at the table, but for some reason clapping didn't bother her the way, like, voices and stuff could, it wasn't that bad. Hannah got up, set the Hat back down on the stool, and quickly tromped over to sit at the Hufflepuff table, her face looking very pink.

Once she was down, the clapping going quiet, Professor McGonagall called, "Bones, Susan." Susan gave her hand a last squeeze, before letting go, started walking up to the stool.

While Susan took her turn, there was a little muttering going on in the clump of first-years, people glancing at her. The Hat sent Susan to "Ravenclaw!" and then Professor McGonagall called up "Boot, Terrence." The whispering got louder and louder, after Terry was sent to "Ravenclaw!" and "Brocklehurst, Amanda," was called up, Daphne shouldered through the group to slip up next to Violet. "Hey, is something wrong?"

"Hmm?"

"She didn't call your name."

"She wasn't supposed to."

Amanda was sent to "Gryffindor!" Daphne staring at her through the cheering, obviously confused. As "Brown, Lavender," was called up, Olivie muttered, "Um, Violet? Black is before Bones."

"I know that."

"So...she didn't call your name."

("Gryffindor!")

Violet shrugged. "I'm on the list as my legal name. That's not until later."

"...I thought you were adopted."

"Not legally." Millie was called up next, Violet gave her a little wave as she went by — Millie gave her a very funny look, probably also wondering why she hadn't been Sorted yet.

"Oh. Well, what is your legal name, then?"

"Later."

Daphne gave her a very funny look, probably wondering why Violet wouldn't just say it.

As Millie was sent to Slytherin, Olivie next to her suddenly perked up, her eyes going wide. "Oh! Oh, I get it!" She glanced around for a second, before leaning really really close and whispering in Violet's ear. "It's a secret." She pulled back again, smiling wide enough her teeth were showing, one eyebrow angled up — asking without asking if she was right.

Violet just nodded. Grinning, Olivie bounced on her toes a little, barely holding in her excitement. She seemed so pleased, Violet couldn't help smiling back at her. Not that she thought Olivie in particular would be weirded out by Violet being Harry Potter this whole time, like a couple of the neighbour girls had been, but, well.

"What? What is it?"

"You'll find out soon," Olivie chirped — too loud, Professor McGonagall throwing her a sharp look. She caught that, wincing a little, her voice dropping to a hiss to say, "It's a secret."

Daphne frowned, apparently not getting it. Tracey, though, blinked at Olivie for a second, then glanced at Violet, and then rolled her eyes — Violet was pretty sure she'd just figured it out too.

There was still some muttering between the other new first-years, and even coming up from some of the other tables — people she'd met on the train, or who knew there was a new Black metamorph and guessed who the person with the rainbow flecks in her hair was — but Violet just ignored it, when other kids tried to get her attention nodded up at the stool, and whoever was on it at the time. Most of the kids didn't take very long. A couple boys she didn't quite recognise (maybe people she met at silly noble tea parties?) went to Ravenclaw, and then Draco's friend Vincent and Tracey went to Slytherin. Violet frowned a little — a lot of Tracey's bullies were from big Slytherin families, and if the kids got sent there too, that might be a problem...

Fay went to Gryffndor, and then some of the muggleborn boys she'd met on the train went all in a row, split up to different houses, Kevin in Ravenclaw and then Justin in Hufflepuff and then Seamus in Gryffindor. Tony got into Ravenclaw — Violet saw he was grinning as he went to sit down (he'd wanted Ravenclaw), so she clapped for him with everyone else, even though the other first-years mostly weren't doing that at all. Draco's friend Gregory was after him, and was on the stool for longer than most, a minute or two, before being sent to Slytherin, and then that Hermione girl was up.

The bushy-haired muggleborn girl was sitting there under the Sorting Hat for a long time. Mum had talked to Violet about this a little bit, she said that sometimes the Hat had a hard time deciding where someone should go, and pondered it a little bit as he talked to them. There was even a special term for it if it lasted at least five minutes, those got called Hatstalls — in the culture at Hogwarts, they thought Hatstalls were, like, super extra special promising students, who would go on to do really cool stuff. Albus had been a Hatstall, and Mum had been close, longer than most but not quite five minutes. (The Hat actually considered her for every house except Ravenclaw.) Lily had been one too, apparently, Mum said she mentioned once that it couldn't decide between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. Hatstalls were normally rare, most classes might only have one, it was pretty special.

Hermione was sitting up there for a long time. Violet wasn't keeping track, but she had a feeling that it ended up being over five minutes. After a while of waiting, the hushed murmuring going on all over the place got slowly louder, people getting lazy about keeping their voices down, and Violet let her eyes wander. She looked over the decorations on the walls — they were super pretty! if maybe a bit much to be in a school — glancing over the student tables for people she might have met somewhere, along the staff table.

While Violet was looking over the staff table, little cold electric tingles sprouted over the back of her neck. She was confused for a second, didn't place what was happening until she felt the smooth steel ring around her left middle finger start to turn slightly warm: someone was trying to read her mind.

She found the person she was pretty sure it was coming from, without really thinking about it — one of the grown-ups sitting at the table, a very pale man in baggy black and purple robes, his head wrapped up in a purple turban. Except, he was turned to the side, talking to the man next to him — black robes that sparkled a little greenish in the light, long black hair and with a little well-groomed goatee on his face (basically the smallest beard you could have and still be fashionable) — he wasn't even looking at Violet. She knew from her lessons with Lord Arcturus that that meant he wasn't using the spell Mum (and Albus) could, he must be a legilimens — someone who could, just, read minds, at any time, just as a part of their magic. Like how metamorphs could change themselves, a thing they could naturally do, like that. Legilimens were pretty rare, but actually more common than metamorphs, that they were out there was a big part of why a lot of noble types learned to protect themselves from mind magic, it was a whole thing.

Was that Professor Snape? Mum mentioned Professor Snape was a legilimens...but she also said he was polite, and mostly didn't go snooping in people's heads unless he had to, for a specific reason. This right now was not very polite.

The man turned to glance at her, and suddenly Violet could feel it, magic sharp and cold close against her skin, making her tense up, holding her breath, the funny prickles at the back of her neck almost sizzling, the metal around her finger growing hot — but he didn't get in, she was pretty sure, Mum's enchantment keeping him out. Frowning, Violet tilted her head a little, staring back at him.

After a couple seconds, he glanced away again, and the magic disappeared, the tingles at the back of her neck going quiet. Violet let out a sigh, rolling her shoulders to try to shake away the unpleasant echo of the cold, needle-y magic clinging to her.

That was weird.

She was distracted out of wondering about that by Hermione getting sent to Gryffindor — oh, finally! There was a lot of clapping as Hermione got up and stumbled over to the right table, ducking her head, but Violet didn't know how much of that was people just happy that they could get on with it.

Oh good, Daphne got sent to Slytherin! She could look out for Tracey, that wasn't so bad, then.

They went back to most of them not taking very long at all, going past a few people she didn't know very well. Professor McGonagall said Sùjuān's name very wrong (she went to Ravenclaw), and Neville went to Gryffindor, which Violet did not see coming — he was a nice boy, but he was so shy! Then Mórag went to Ravenclaw and Áirneas to Hufflepuff and Draco to Slytherin, all of which she did see coming. Then a couple more people she didn't know, Theo went to Slytherin, sure, and then Pansy was up.

Pansy Parkinson — Violet was probably next. She took a long slow breath, trying not to be nervous, her heart throbbing in her throat, fidgeting with the hems of her long uniform robe sleeves, biting her lip...

Pansy went to Slytherin, and Professor McGonagall called for...a "Patil, Padma," oh, okay. Right! Right, Violet almost forgot, Padma and Parvati, their last name was Patil. (She mostly used people's first names, and she had trouble keeping straight names she didn't hear very often.) Padma went to Ravenclaw, and Parvati went to Gryffindor — oh no! they were split up! but they were still bonded though, like the Muircheartaigh girls! And after them was—

—Sally-Anne! One of the muggleborns from the train, the shy girl, apparently her last name was Perks. There were so many Ps!

Violet distracted herself wondering how many people with names starting with the same letter it was normal to have — there were twenty-six letters and only forty students, but it wouldn't be even, since some letters were rarer than others — so she was startled a little when Professor McGonagall raised her voice again. "Potter, Violet."

The room went super super quiet — almost silent, except for people breathing, and Olivie nearby bouncing on her toes and letting out a little excited squeal. Violet started up toward the stool, knowing that everyone was watching her, the hair at the back of her neck standing up, feeling weirdly clumsy, just trying to put one foot in front of the other and not stumble around like an idiot, her heart throbbing in her ears. As she got close to the stool, she whipped off her hat, glanced over her shoulder.

Everyone was staring at her, big round eyes, dozens and dozens and dozens. It wasn't quite so silent as it'd been at first, people hissing and muttering to each other.

Violet closed her eyes for a second, forced a change, the magic swishing over and through her like warm silky bathwater. She didn't actually go boy-mode — that meant changing lots of stuff, was too much work — but her hair was short and black and floofy, her face tweaked a little bit, narrower and pointier, like some of the Blacks in portraits and stuff around Ancient House. And James too, it turned out — his mum was Mum's baby sister, he got a lot of the look through her. Violet gave the crowd a little wave.

Then she slipped off her anti- mind magic ring, plucked the Sorting Hat up off of the stool, thumped down onto the seat, and tugged the hat down over her head. And over was the right word, it was really too big for her...

She was sitting there for maybe only five seconds before the hat yelled, "HUFFLEPUFF!" — oooohhh, that was so loud from this close, eeiicchhh. Unpleasant shivers running down her arms, Violet yanked the hat off her own head, holding it way out from her body, in case it started yelling again. There was clapping and stuff going on, but Violet wasn't really paying attention, focussed on standing up and setting the hat back down, and then changing her hair back. (Her face could stay, it was always slowly shifting around anyway.) Pulling her own hat back on, and then putting her anti - mind magic ring back, she started walking, and woah, like most of the whole Hufflepuff table had stood up clapping and shouting and stuff, that seemed like a bit much.

But it was really nice of them! Shew knew they were really only happy she was going to their house because she was super famous and all, but she also knew some people were going to be weird about the whole not being a boy thing, but! but they didn't seem to care, they were happy they got her anyway! That was good!

She could feel the nervousness from before melt away, leaving her kind of bubbly, her steps as she walked over to the table going all bouncy. Grinning, Violet waved back at the table, a much less shy awkward wave than before — it looked like Hufflepuff at least wasn't going to care she was, well, the way she was, that was good! Yay!

Ooh, could they not do the whistling though, that was stabby...

Just wanting to get down and let things move on, Violet plopped down into a seat across from Áirneas and a boy she didn't recognise and between Sally-Anne and, um, um... She forgot what this girl's name was. The girl sitting at the end, a little small for their age, with long straight black hair, and really shy, sitting right at the end as far from other people as she could be, all hunched over — her face started going red when Violet sat down next to her, um. Áirneas and the other boy were giving her kind of funny looks, but Sally-Anne and Justin just looked confused. The clapping was still going on, Dora, sitting past Sally-Anne over with Hannah and...Violet forgot that girl's name too. Anyway, she leaned a little around Sally-Anne, said, "I told you you'd be in Hufflepuff."

Violet started saying, Everyone told me I'd be in Hufflepuff, but it was still loud, she knew right away Dora wouldn't be able to hear her. Raising her voice always made her uncomfortable — she didn't like yelling, it felt buzzy and crawly in her throat — so she just shrugged and rolled her eyes instead.

It took a while for the Sorting to move on, not just because the Hufflepuffs kept clapping and yelling (and whistling, nooo, stop), but also a lot of people at the other tables were chattering, looking over toward Violet and... Trying to decide if Violet was really Harry Potter, she guessed. Professor McGonagall tried to get everyone's attention and call up the next person, but it was so noisy and everyone so distracted that it didn't really work.

Eventually, Albus stood, raising both hands up, silently calling for quiet. It didn't take right away, people didn't notice at first, but then it spread through the Hall, people stopping talking and looking up at him — the Hufflepuffs stopped cheering too, a rustling and a clunking as everyone got back in their seats. Once it was quiet again, everyone's eyes on Albus, almost seeming to hold their breath...he dropped his hands, and sat down again. A second later, Professor McGonagall called for, "Rivers, Olivie," she twitched with surprise before skipping up toward the stool...

There was an outbreak of whispers, but much quieter than before. Violet thought everyone had expected Albus to explain what was going on with her — she kind of had too, really. But she guessed Albus knew everyone would think that, and he used that as a trick to get them to be quiet, and then just moved on without saying anything. Which was maybe clever, if not solving the problem of getting people to be quiet for more than a few seconds.

Olivie was still under the hat when Áirneas whispered across the table, "Are you really Harry Potter?"

She nodded, and then nodded over at Olivie, sitting not very far behind Violet and the girl whose name she forgot. Olivie got sent to Slytherin — well crap, it would have been nice if she were in Hufflepuff. She didn't think any of her friends were in Hufflepuff! Susan was in Ravenclaw, and Millie and Daphne and now Olivie too were in Slytherin. She did know a couple people here, like Áirneas and Hannah, just, not good friends, was all.

Well fine, she guessed she just got to make new friends, then! Hannah was nice, if a little jealous still about Violet being Susan's best friend now, and Sally-Anne was a bit shy, but she seemed okay so far? Violet was sure she could make this work. Besides, they were Hufflepuffs, it shouldn't be a problem.

(It would have been better if Susan were in Hufflepuff with her, though? It was going to be harder to sneak her conjured food this way...)

Straight after Olivie was Sophie, from the train — it was Roper, with a P, that was how Professor McGonagall said it. She was sent to Hufflepuff pretty quickly after the hat touched down on her head, she skipped over to the table and wormed her way onto the bench between Violet and Sally-Anne. That did make sense, Violet was the only person here Sophie already knew at all, but there kind of wasn't a lot of room here. Violet scooted closer to Lily, the girl's face going even redder...

Um, was she uncomfortable about Violet not being a boy and stuff? or was she just really shy? Violet didn't know how to tell...

Once she was sitting down, almost right against Violet — people that way would scoot over a little to make room over the next minute or two, but for right now it was a little cramped — Sophie leaned closer to ask, "Hey, are you really Harry Potter? Like, the famous boy they were talking about on the train."

Violet noticed again that Sophie talked a little funny, but it was clear enough what she was saying. "Yep."

"Was that why you leapt earlier? Because we were talking about it, and your parents dying, and stuff."

"Um... Oh!" She was slightly confused at first (Sophie did talk funny), but, "Yeah, that, that, that was why. Um. B-b-b-but the Sorting, though?" Zach was on the stool now, and they only had a few people left...

Zach was sent to Hufflepuff, Violet pouted — Zach was annoying, and kind of mean — and then immediately felt bad about it. He was just a stuck-up rich kid, like a lot of people she knew, really, he wasn't that bad. Violet was sure it'd be fine.

At that point there were only four kids left. First was Dean from the train, who went to Gryffindor, and then Lisa from the Hogwarts group at school, who went to Ravenclaw, and then her shiny new cousin Ron, who also went to Gryffindor. The last person was Blaise, so once he went to Slytherin they were done! Yay! They could get to dinner now! Which, Violet was starting to get pretty hungry, so...

Violet was a little worried when Albus stood up that there might be a big long welcome speech or something, and they'd have to wait even longer for food! But then he just said some nonsense words and sat down again — that was very silly, and confusing, but dinner appeared on the table, so she wasn't really complaining.

The meal that had appeared on the table — teleported from somewhere else, she guessed — seemed heavy, lots of meat and stuff, very much a Sunday roast kind of thing, you know? There was chicken, a few different plates of steaks, and, um, that was probably roast beef? or maybe lamb, Violet knew lamb roasts were a thing up in Scotland. There were also bacon and sausages, and pies, and tureens of gravy, and vegetables, mostly peas and, like, carrots and potatoes, roast or mashed, and bread, including floppy crispy things that looked a lot like Yorkshire pudding, and...

There was a lot, but none of it looked...super good to Violet. She could be picky sometimes? She didn't like eating meat with bones in at all — Mum always magicked out the bones for her — which, it looked like the steaks and chicken and stuff did. The pies probably had, like, organs in them, which often tasted funny, and could be squeaky on her teeth, made her feel eich. She guessed the roast beef and the sausages were probably fine, and peas weren't bad? And the mashed potatoes should be good — the colour was a little off, she thought they mixed in carrots, people did that sometimes. So, sure, she'd grab a piece out of the roast just there, and a couple sausages (which she actually set down on her napkin on the table instead of on her plate, so the grease didn't leak into anything), and some mashed potatoes, and one of the Yorkshire pudding -looking things why not, drizzle some of this mushroom gravy stuff over it...

Oooh, they weren't potatoes, these were actually swedes! That was...fine, she guessed. Potatoes weren't so common on the magical side, she knew — you saw them sometimes, just not as much. They were from America, apparently, and still new in Europe when Secrecy happened? Swedes were kind of similar, when they were cooked and mashed up and all, just had a kind of funny sharp greenish taste to them. Mixed in with the carrots and with the gravy, it was fine, she just would have preferred potatoes.

She actually didn't finish the veggie mash stuff, and the roast was...fine? she guessed? The Yorkshire pudding -like thing was maybe a little tough, but the mushroom gravy was good! if slightly bland, it could use some, um, um, rosemary, it could use some rosemary. Violet thought she was maybe a little spoiled by Mum being a really good cook, and also knowing the things she could be picky about. And, Mum's cooking tended to be less bland than most people's — she knew that already, comparing with her neighbours, or the food they had at school, or at the silly noble kid tea parties. This was fine, she guessed, it's not like she couldn't eat at all, it was just not great.

Most of the other kids were, like, getting seconds and stuff, but Violet didn't bother — she did munch at a sausage now and then, just because, but. She was kind of worried people would ask her a lot about being Harry Potter, but they didn't, mostly? Maybe it helped that a lot of the Hufflepuffs were muggleborns. They were just learning about Harry Potter in the first place, so that this person all the other kids thought was supposed to be a boy was actually a girl wasn't a big deal. Violet thought Justin thought it was a little silly that she had the whole secret identity and everything — his words, said like he was quoting something? — but there was the war and all, so that kind of made sense...

Violet did get asked a couple times about that stuff — the couple kids who knew her already seemed to stick on it more than the new people, and even then they were mostly just annoyed she'd lied about it the whole time — but they talked about other stuff for most of dinner. Like, Hogwarts, and where they were from and basic stuff about them and that kind of thing. The prefects nearby said they'd be told more about how Hufflepuff and the school in general worked after dinner, and they'd get shown around tomorrow, how to find their way and where their classes were. It was a big place, but you'll figure it out! And yeah, it was super cool and magic sometimes, the ceiling was just enchanted to look like that...

It wasn't until Sally-Anne asked about it that Violet even realised that everyone else could see the sky overhead instead of, just, the arched stone ceiling. It must be an illusion — those didn't work on Violet sometimes, for fairy magic reasons. She was a little disappointed she couldn't see it, it sounded pretty. All the floating candles were still cool though!

The shy girl next to her was called Lily Moon, apparently. "Oh! My b-brr-b-birth mum was a Lily!" And she could actually mention James and Lily now, since people knew who she was!

Violet noticed a couple other kids at the table give her funny looks — well, yes, she guessed she was famous and everyone knew who her parents were already — but Lily just blushed again. Her voice really low, enough that Violet could barely even hear her, "Yeah, I'm, um...named after her?"

"...Oh." She knew there were kids named after James and Lily, there were even a couple at an Ollscoil. (Not very many, though, not as big of a deal to Gaels.) They were all younger kids, though. "But, but, we were born b-be, before that Hallowe'en?"

And Lily's face somehow got even redder, enough it was starting to look uncomfortable, scrunching in on herself. "We live in Hogsmeade. The battle there, a couple years earlier, um... Death Eaters were hurting my parents, and Lily Potter and, er, Sirius Black saved them."

That was a name she heard a few times — supposedly he'd been a good guy who then turned out to be a spy and betrayed Violet's parents, but Mum said he probably hadn't actually. (He definitely did blow up the bloke who did, and a bunch of random people around, so him being in prison for murder still made sense.) She never really heard about a battle in Hogsmeade, but there were lots of fights all over the place, so she guessed it wasn't a big surprise. "Well it's g-g-good they saved you then, because you're here now!" she said, nudging Lily a little with her knee.

Her face still very very red, Lily gave her a shy little smile.

In the talk about where they lived and their families and stuff, Zach was being a little stuck up, about being special important nobility and everything, which was silly. Not only was it a funny thing to do, but also he wasn't the only person from a Noble House here? Áirneas was too, and Violet was technically a Lady of the Wizengamot and everything? (She was definitely wealthier and more 'important' than Zach was.) But whatever, Zach was just like this sometimes — it was annoying, but she didn't think he was being mean on purpose.

People thought it was a little weird that Violet had two mums, but also she was pretty weird in general, what with the not-being-a-boy thing, so she didn't think anyone really cared all that much. No, it wasn't legal for them to get married, but they were going to do it anyway, so there!

Sophie thought that was funny, at least, giggling and latching onto her arm and asking when the wedding was and if she could come, magic weddings must be really cool! So, that was probably a good sign for people getting over the Harry Potter is Violet Black thing — Sophie was even a muggleborn, so she couldn't already be used to metamorphs doing metamorph things, like deciding they were going to be a girl now, so.

After a good while, Violet had no idea how long, dinner disappeared in a blink, all the stuff left on the platters gone, even her plate cleaned itself. For a second she thought dinner was over now, but then in another blink there was food on the table again — oh, there was a separate dessert course, okay. There were a lot of cakes and pies and pastries, bowls of some kind of fruity creamy thing — that sort of looked like trifle? but not quite the same thing — and also there was ice cream! They looked kind of funny, the ice cream stuck in these glass containers, she thought maybe the elves made it themselves?

Violet did love ice cream, but by this point the noise was starting to get to her. It was loud in here, dozens and dozens and dozens of people talking all at once, it was really starting to make her head hurt, and all grinding in her ears and her skin starting to go spiny and aagghhh. She'd thought she would be okay, it took longer than usual to start bothering her — she thought maybe because things were happening, and that was exciting, and she'd been in a better mood to start with? She didn't know. But whatever, it was dragging at her now, and, she didn't know how much longer she could stick it out. She did manage to eat a little bit of ice cream, but pretty soon she was feeling badly enough she really didn't want to eat anything, and she'd like dinner to just be over now, thank you...

Mum did make another amulet for her, kind of like her smell-blocking one, that muffled out the voices of anyone she wasn't paying attention to...but like a stupid person, she'd left it in her trunk. She'd have to remember to keep that on her tomorrow.

At least Violet was right near the end of the table — so, the noise was getting a bit much, but she didn't feel surrounded on top of that. She thought that helped, a little bit. The dessert course was mostly spent with Violet ducking down being super quiet, like Lily right next to her. People mostly left her alone, apparently able to tell that she didn't feel well, and eventually the desserts disappeared too. Good, she had made it all the way to the end, she wasn't sure she'd be able to.

Albus over at the professors' table stood up, and gave a little welcome speech. Her brain being difficult, Violet was having a hard time following what he was saying, squinting up at him, the words burbling in her ears. Um, a reminder to not go out into the forest (Mum said big parts of it belonged to the centaurs, there was a treaty), some of the basic rules, um, um, stuff about the quidditch and duelling teams that she didn't really follow — not that it made any difference to her, she wasn't allowed to do duelling for fairy magic reasons, and first-years weren't supposed to join the quidditch teams — they had a new Professor of Muggle Studies, Charity Burbage, there was a little bit of clapping to welcome her, she was replacing Quirnius Quirrell, who was their new Professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts for this—

Oh! That was the legilimens who'd tried to read her mind earlier. Well poo, Defence was a required class — hopefully he'd be more polite, then...

And then it was time to...sing the school song? Albus cast a spell, um, maybe an illusion? Violet saw a glittery gold magic sparkle over the staff table, she assumed those were maybe the words, but she couldn't make them out. And even if she could read the words, she didn't know the—

Albus told them to just pick a tune? But...there were so many different people! He couldn't mean—

It turned out he did mean. A whole bunch of people started singing at once — though Violet noticed a lot of people weren't joining in, either confused about what was going on or just folding their arms or covering their ears and waiting for it to end — and all of them at different speeds and at different pitches, it sounded so bad! Gritting her teeth, Violet hunched down and covered her ears with her hands, the noise that leaked through still grinding its way into her head, aaaccchhh...

Thankfully, it didn't take very long to get through the whole thing — the words must be pretty short. By the end Violet was still shivering in her seat, her head pounding and goose bumps crawling over her skin. But that was as much from the talking earlier as the awful singing, she'd really rather be out of here now.

And she would get to be out of here soon: dinner was over, Albus dismissed everyone else but the first-years were supposed to stay where they were to get led up to their rooms by their prefects. She guessed there being fewer people in here was really just as good as getting away — at least it'd be quieter.

There was a lot of noise for a bit as people stood up and shuffled around, but it didn't take very long for it to trail off, all the older students leaving through the doors and to...wherever their dorms were. (Albus had said up, like all the dorms were up there, but Violet knew Slytherin at least was underground.) A few people were lingering behind, standing around talking in clumps — robes in a mix of colours, maybe people who had friends in other houses catching up? — but it was only a few minutes before the huge dining room was almost empty except for the first-years over on their end.

Just as it was getting properly quiet again, Violet starting to relax, Dora sprung up to her feet. "All right, then! Let's get this thing going, shall we?"

"I think we shall," said the only other older kid left at the table, a boy with shaggy brown hair.

"Perfect. Welcome to Hufflepuff, littles. My name is Tonks, and I'm the seventh-year girls' prefect. Violet right there is my baby cousin, but don't worry, I definitely will play favourites." There was a little bit of confused glancing around, Justin started saying, hey wait, but Dora ignored them and kept talking. "That big dopey clod just there is the boys' prefect, Bennie Fox."

"Thanks, Tonks, really feeling the love. Tonks and I have the job of showing you lot down to the dorms tonight, and we'll also be giving you a tour of the school tomorrow. If you ever need something, or someone in one of the other houses is giving you trouble, go ahead and find one of us, or one of the sixth- or fifth-year prefects. Or Poms, if she's around. Don't worry about annoying us, we signed up for the job — besides, it's not like Tonks here ever revises for exams anyway."

"Oi, I do just fine, thank you — just because some of us learn the thing properly the first time. Right, what are you lot waiting for? Get up, come on! Just a short walk downstairs, this way..."

Dora and Bennie led Violet and the first-year Hufflepuffs — some of them looking a little sleepy, but it was getting late — back the way they'd come, through the big double doors into the tall open Entrance Hall, took a turn toward the wide main staircase ahead. They didn't go up the stairs, though, the prefects angling past them, toward the wall over there. Dora pointed out the big hourglasses filled with gemstones set into the wall here, explained about the House Cup and points and everything — all the professors could give and take points, and so could prefects and the Head Boy and Girl, but the prefect's head of house would double-check any points they gave or took at the end of the week to make sure nothing funny was going on. If a prefect took points from them over something they didn't think was fair, tell one of their prefects, and they could complain about it ahead of time and probably get the professors to reverse it. If there was an argument between the prefects over something, the professors would usually cancel the punishment just to make the prefects go away, so, it was always worth trying.

Don't worry about the points too much, though. Hufflepuff normally didn't do very well in the House Cup anyway — Slytherin had won the last six years in a row, and second place was normally Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Gryffindor flipping between third and fourth. It wasn't a super big deal if you lost points, nobody was going to get angry with you or anything, just try to have fun with it! Sometimes everything didn't have to be so serious, you know?

Bennie joked that Dora could stand to take some things a little more seriously — Dora stuck her tongue out at him with a loud phhbt, her tongue changed into a bright unnatural yellow, some of the first-years giggling.

Through a door to the left of the staircase — the one on the right went to the same place, Bennie said, they were just showing them the hourglasses — was a hallway leading back, before long reaching a wider hallway at a right angle. Dora and Bennie pointed toward the duelling hall, and Helga's Gallery was over there — they'd show them that tomorrow, there was a shortcut to the greenhouses that way. Taking a U-turn, tucked under the main staircase was a set of stairs in the same shiny white granite leading down. Violet frowned — she didn't like tight spaces — but she sucked in a quick breath and followed with the rest of the group.

The stairs switchbacked around once before they ended in a room made out of the plain greyish stone Violet knew there was in the rest of the castle, leaving the pretty shiny white and gold of the Entrance and Great Halls behind. There wasn't actually anything in this room, hallways leading out both left and right, a wide, heavy-looking double door straight across from the stairs. Bennie pointed to the left — the Slytherin dorms were that way, and also the Potions classroom and Snape's office, they'd be seeing that tomorrow — but they turned to the right. A little bit of walking brought them to an intersection with another hallway — pointing to the right, Dora said the kitchens were down the hall that way, the laundry a little bit further along the hall. There was a lost-and-found at the corner over there, they'd see that tomorrow too.

They continued straight past that hallway, though. After a short distance, the walls pulled back somewhat, making a little square. On the right side of the hallway were a pair of doors — the one left open a crack was Professor Sprout's office, and the closed one was her flat — and on the left side of the hallway the floor sloped down a little, all around the walls down here were...big casks of cider, maybe?

Violet noticed right away that one stack of casks looked sparkly, little colourful specks like in the fur of some magical animals, or in Draco's hair. That must be where the entrance was.

But being able to see that stuff was a fairy magic thing, that spot didn't look any different to the other kids. Dora said you could feel the magic on the right row, which was something they'd start learning how to do in Charms class, but it was okay if you forgot which one the entrance was hidden behind. All you had to do to open the door was knock on the right barrel, and you could keep trying until you find the right one. Other houses had passwords and stuff, but in Hufflepuff you could just knock and come right in — it was more fun that way, when you could bring your friends in and stuff! People from other houses could be disinvited if they made trouble — the wall just wouldn't let them through, even if the door was open, because magic was neat like that — go ahead and tell Professor Sprout or the prefects if someone was bothering you. But you could invite your friends whenever, and they had parties and stuff all the time, have fun with it!

That was good, that you could bring people into Hufflepuff! Violet would have to show Susan how to get in later...

Anyway, once everyone was told the rules and everything, Bennie knocked on the sparkly stack of casks — with little hollow clunking noises, the casks slid back into the wall and rolled away, and the bars of the rack folded over to the sides, revealing a narrow passage through the wall. It was a little cramped, Violet could almost feel the walls closing in on her, but it wasn't very long, soon opening up into a bigger space.

And, Violet had been worried about Hufflepuff being underground, but this was nice! The room they came into was big and open, and, she thought it was kind of like an amphitheatre? You know, those big old Roman things, with the tiers of benches around a stage, except the stage was a little platform down at the centre, the benches rising in a slow slope in a circle around it. The floor in a ring around that stuff was covered with colourful rugs with a bunch of different patterns on them, and there were multiple big fireplaces built into the walls around the big circular room, where there weren't fireplaces instead there were tapestries, mostly showing historical scenes in what Violet recognised as a mediaeval style (probably Gothic?), super super colourful and complicated, must have taken ages to make. The ceiling rose in a shallow dome over the amphitheatre-like place, and it was kind of funny-looking — instead of just being a flat smooth surface, it was a tangled net of branching tubes, splitting and weaving in random directions, and—

Oh! They were trees! It was supposed to be, like, being in the middle of a forest and looking up to see the branches of trees spreading out over your head, except way denser and kind of getting woven in with each other. Like a root ball, but with branches. Violet didn't notice at first, she was tipped off when she spotted little carvings of birds and squirrels up there, and what she was looking at suddenly clicked. That was neat! Super detailed and complicated, she wondered who did that...

Anyway, the room was big and open enough that it didn't feel too cramped, even though they were underground right now. There was light coming from the fireplaces, but also a warm yellowish glow from the dome ceiling — like the sun was up there, past the tree branches, but it didn't seem to be coming from any part of the dome in particular. Also, the room was very full, dozens of people sitting on the benches, but it wasn't too loud. Violet even felt a kind of funny tingle of magic on the air, she thought maybe there was some ward or something that stopped the noise from being too overwhelming.

All the Hufflepuffs were here on the benches, and Professor Sprout met them just inside the room. Professor Sprout was in charge of Hufflepuff — she was short, and a little pudgy, with dark grey curly hair kept in a close little cloud around her head, a wide-brimmed sunhat kind of squishing her hair down into a funny flattened shape. The plain trousers and tunic, only partly hidden by a somewhat nicer deep green front-closing robe pulled over and worn hanging open, were actually kind of cheap and old-looking, and Violet was pretty sure there were even dirt stains on the knees? Didn't seem like the sort of thing you'd expect a professor at a fancy school like Hogwarts to be wearing.

She seemed super nice though! As Dora and Bennie led them in, Professor Sprout immediately welcomed them to Hufflepuff, her voice all bright and cheerful and grinning ear to ear. She wasn't one of those stuck-up adults either — Bennie called her Poms, right to her face! and Professor Sprout just kept smiling, didn't even blink. That seemed kind of rude to Violet, she didn't know if she'd be able to call her that, even if she was super nice...

Anyway, Professor Sprout quickly pointed out the sixth- and fifth-year prefects. She explained that normally the prefects were just chosen by the head of the house, but in Hufflepuff they were elected by their classmates, and Professor Sprout gave the names the class picked to Albus. The other four years also picked representatives, who helped her and the prefects run the house — they would learn more about how that worked at the first House Meeting of the year — but of course she couldn't point them out, because they hadn't been elected yet. The first-years would also be picking their representatives, but not until the end of the month, so they could get to know each other and the house better first.

There were house rules and stuff they would need to know, but it was getting late, so they could do all that tomorrow. For now, Professor Sprout just wanted them all to introduce themselves to the rest of the house quick — Professor McGonagall had said all their names at the Sorting, but people might have forgotten since then. (Or weren't really paying that much attention in the first place, since Violet guessed that whole thing might have been kind of boring if you weren't one of the people being Sorted.) They weren't really given instructions on what they were supposed to say, but right away they settled into just giving their names, and where they were from, and also sometimes if they had family at the school right now. Most of them didn't, though, since Sophie and Justin and Sally-Anne were all muggleborns, and half of the magic-raised kids were commoners, and they mostly didn't have the money to send very many kids to Hogwarts.

Most people's turns passed without much happening, maybe some waves and people saying hi and stuff. But when it was Violet's turn, the little whispering chatters went out, everybody watching, the room going very quiet and intense. After she stuttered her way through her piece, someone called, "Hey, why aren't you a boy?"

There was a bit of muttering at that, some shuffling, Violet was pretty sure someone smacked the boy who said that over the shoulder. "Don't be rude, you berk."

"Was that rude? I was just asking..."

"Um." The room went quiet again as Violet made the sound, she was a little startled, cut herself off. Feeling squirmy — so many people watching her at once was weird — it took her a few seconds to find her voice. "I d– I d– I decided I wanted to be a, a g-girl instead so...I stopped? being a boy, I mean, I stopped."

There was a bit of laughing at that...but Violet didn't think it was mean laughter? There was a lot of smiling going on, and she heard a couple people saying good enough! or things like that, some other people making what she was pretty sure were jokes about metamorphs. And they just moved straight on to Leanne's turn after that, so, yeah, she thought that went okay? Nobody was freaking out and making a big deal about it, anyway.

This whole Violet Black is Harry Potter thing was going pretty well so far, honestly. Mum had warned her to be ready for some people being weird about it, but...

They didn't hang around very long after that, though — once everyone had introduced themselves, Professor Sprout told the first-years to follow her, and she'd show them down to their rooms. Dora stayed behind, but Bennie came with them, Violet thought probably to deal with the boys. The amphitheatre-like place wasn't the only room in the Hufflepuff dorms, there were other sitting rooms around too, branching off of it here and there. Things weren't built in rectangles with right angles and straight lines, instead the walls and the ceilings were curved, a room might bend at a funny angle. There weren't doors, exactly, instead the walls would only partly close in before pulling back again for the next room, the different spaces little blobs budding off of each other — you could tell where one room ended and the next began, but the whole place was still very open and interconnected. Only the amphitheatre-like room had the fake sunlight in it, the other rooms lit from the fireplaces dotted all over the place, here and there colourful balls of magical light floating up by the ceiling, the light uneven, leaving soft subtle shadows cast at random.

The rooms not being closed off and the gentle curving lines and the patches of light and shadow made the space feel less cramped, to Violet. She didn't think it was actually that big in here, but it felt nice and open, but at the same time super nice and cosy, with the gentle firelight and all the poofy armchairs and sofas around, the walls marking off the different blobs and the way rooms curved breaking line-of-sight, so you weren't entirely out in the open. But not fully cut off either, it, it was subtle, Violet didn't know how to explain it, exactly. And most of the furniture and the carpets and tapestries and stuff in rich brown and honey gold and soft black, patches of gentle green here and there, it was nice, she liked it!

Which was good, she was worried she wouldn't deal well being underground. (It'd been ages since she'd been in the cupboard, but she still didn't like tight spaces, sometimes.) She was kind of relieved, really, if all of Hufflepuff was like this she should be okay.

As they walked, Professor Sprout went on about the rules of hanging around in the common area — basically, don't be mean to people, it wasn't complicated — and if you needed help with your homework or your classmates bullying you or even just feeling sad and homesick, just come up here and talk to anyone. Any random person you asked might not be able to help, but they'll point you to someone who can. And if it was a big problem, or you didn't want to be talking about it out in the open, you could always slip a subtle note to a prefect or come find Professor Sprout wherever she happened to be at the moment, don't be shy to ask for help! Being in a big new complicated place, and away from home for the first time, that could be really scary, so...

There were a few different sitting rooms, but there were also other things, like, a game room, a public bath the whole house could use. (There were rules about those too, someone would explain later.) There was a house library — one of the sitting rooms they passed through had a balcony looking over the library, curling arcs of shelves with little sitting nooks spaced here and there — you could borrow whenever you wanted, just be sure to put it back when you were done. Also, if you had books you didn't need anymore, you could leave them in the library too — there were a bunch of old textbooks people had donated over the years, if you lost yours there should be a few around to borrow.

There was also a craft room! A special place where they could work on projects, like, assignments for Runes or Potions or whatever, sure, but also whatever else they wanted to work on that you did with your hands, all kinds of things. Professor Sprout said they even had some looms set up in there, which was neat! That might be a good place for Violet to do her painting, and work on her embroidering and stuff, she should ask about that later...

Though she would have to wear her painting dress, because she probably wasn't supposed to be sit around the common rooms naked. That wasn't really a big deal, though, that was why she had a painting dress in the first place.

Before too long they came to a wide set of curling wooden spiral stairs, tucked away to one side of a sitting room — this was where everyone's dorms were, Professor Sprout led the way down. There was plenty of room for people to walk three-by-three, at least, but if everyone was supposed to take the same stairs, Violet guessed that made sense, so they didn't get too backed up. The stairs ended in a smaller, circular room, the floor covered with brown carpet decorated with curling vines and playing animals, deer and foxes and badgers and bunnies and ferrets and stuff, the walls and the ceiling painted with a super complicated Celtic knot sort of pattern, it was pretty! if a little dizzying to trying to take in all at once.

There were seven doors, spaced evenly around the room, each helpfully labelled with shiny brass numbers. Professor Sprout opened the door with the big number one on it, smilingly waving them in ahead of her. Just as they were streaming in, Violet heard people tromping on the stairs, a chattering of voices — more kids coming down to their rooms, she and the other first-years were all in their room before anyone else got down here.

Through the door was a little private common area place. In the middle were a couple of sofas and armchairs, and all along the walls was desk space. Not really separate desks, the flat surface running all the way around, but there were drawers here and there for people to put their things in, with a chair next to each set — ten chairs, Violet counted, one for each of them. There were a couple sofas in the middle of the room, but not even enough sitting space for all of them to hang out. It was obvious to Violet that this was supposed to be a more private study space, if they actually wanted to work on things, and not somewhere they were supposed to spend social time. Professor Sprout said there were lapdesks and stuff up in the common room, they could do their homework up there if they liked, but they did have parties and stuff going on sometimes, if it got too noisy they could always come down here where it was quieter.

Besides the door they came in through, there were two exits — wooden doors, one carved with a craggy textured surface, like the bark on an oak tree! and the other the doorframe was shaped into dozens of pretty little flower shapes. The tree door was for boys and the flower door was for girls, Professor Sprout led the girls through the flower door, the boys going with Bennie.

Violet already knew Hufflepuffs didn't get their own bedrooms, instead sharing a space, which, she thought was probably actually better? Maybe not, if people were going to be annoying, and Violet could be weird sometimes in ways that bothered other people, but, she'd mostly been worried that a small room just for her might feel too small. She'd been a little worried that she might be reminded of the cupboard, especially once the lights were off.

But this was nice! The room was an unevenly-shaped blob, the walls waving back and forth a little, making a sort of oval shape but not quite really. Here and there and there around the room were comfy-looking beds, with poofy pillows and thick quilts and stuff, each one with a little nightstand with a lamp, a wardrobe standing to the other side. Violet noticed that the back and forth of the wall wasn't for no reason — they kind of made little nooks tucked away, and that's where the head of the beds were. There were soft chocolatey-brown curtains hanging from the ceiling, at the moment they were pinned up out of the way, but Violet saw how you could let them loose to droop around the bed nooks, if you wanted privacy, but still leave an open path through the room so you could get by. The lights were pretty dim in here, still plenty you could see everything, but it was was all soft and warm and cosy, Violet liked it! She wouldn't be letting her curtains down, just in case that ended up feeling too closed in for her, but still.

Professor Sprout was explaining how the laundry worked, and the enchantment keys and stuff — there was a slip of paper in the drawers in their nightstands with an explanation of the different key words — and a few things about if they needed help with this or that, as the girls poked around the room, finding their things. Violet noticed a problem pretty quickly: there were six of them, but only five beds. Walking down the room, Violet looked over all the trunks, trying to find...

Nope, she thought so. Violet walked up to Professor Sprout, so she wouldn't have to raise her voice at all, waited to speak until she was between sentences. "Um? P-Professor Sprout?"

"Yes, dear?" she asked, all warm and soft, smiling down at her.

"M-my, my, mmm..." Violet pouted off at nothing for a second — she hated needing to talk sometimes, talking was stupid. "My stuff isn't here?"

"What do— Oh! Oh, of course, sweetheart," her hand coming down to grip at Violet's shoulder for a second. Kind of firm, but not really in a mean way, but Violet still flinched without thinking — mostly because she'd suddenly been worried for a second she was going to be in trouble for being a freak who couldn't even be a boy properly. But that obviously wasn't what this was, Professor Sprout was saying, "I'm sorry, I entirely forgot about that. Corri?"

After a short pause, an elf appeared with a familiar little pop! — a woman, Violet was pretty sure, a bit younger than Nola. "Is Professor Poms needing something?"

"Girls," Professor Sprout said, glancing around at them, "this is Corri, she'll be taking care of the first-year rooms for the year."

A couple of the girls said versions of thank you, Corri, but Sally-Anne blurted out, "What are you? No, I'm sorry, that was rude," she muttered, her face going pink and her head ducking down a little.

But Corri just grinned up at her, big yellow elf eyes bright. "Corrie is a house-elf, Miss!"

Sally-Anne was muggleborn, though, and wouldn't know what elves were, but before she could work up the nerve to ask Professor Sprout said, "I'm sure one of your magic-raised roommates will be able to explain all about house-elves. But for now, Corri, can you move Violet Potter's things over here for us? We'll need the Castle to make room for her bed too."

Corri looked really confused...but then her eyes found Violet, and she jumped, twitching hard enough her feet actually left the ground, letting out a sharp sudden ah! "Harry Potter is being a girl! Corri is being sorry, Miss Potter, Miss, Corri wasn't knowing that!"

Violet shrugged. "It's okay. I d-d– um, I surprised a lot of people." There was a little giggle from Sophie, Hannah rolled her eyes.

"Corri is being sorry anyway. Corri will fix it now." She disappeared with another little pop!

And a few seconds later, the room changed. It was really weird, a sharp crackling of magic prickling over Violet's skin, and the walls and the floor and the ceiling seemed to move, ripples running over them like waves on water. It was making her kind of dizzy, but it only lasted for a blink...and now there were six beds, with six nightstands and six lamps and six wardrobes, with six trunks against the beds. One of the trunks, Violet saw, was hers — there we go.

Professor Sprout finished up her talk about stuff, and they moved on to the bathroom, with some more explanation of the rules and stuff. Nothing super complicated, just, you know, don't be mean to people in here, and stuff about the enchantment keys, how magical plumbing worked for the muggleborns. This space was more plain than the rest of Hufflepuff, creamy off-white tile with a little bit of black here and there for contrast, but it was clean and nice enough. The space was actually way bigger than Violet expected, multiple rows of sinks in front of mirrors, private little stalls with toilets and showers and bathtubs. They were a bit cramped, but she was kind of used to showers being small sometimes, from some of the hotels they'd stayed at travelling — it wasn't her favourite, but she'd be fine.

Violet got her answer for why the bathroom was so big when an older girl suddenly appeared through another door, giving the first-years a little wave before slipping into one of the toilet stalls: this bathroom was shared between the first-, second-, third-, and fourth-year girls. There were four bathrooms like this, another was shared between the fifth-, sixth-, and seventh-year girls, and then the same on the boys' side. Professor Sprout said it could get a little crowded and busy in here in the mornings, when everyone was getting up and ready for the day, try to be mindful of other people's space, and maybe plan around the busy times as much as you could, so you didn't have to waste time waiting your turn to use a sink or one of the stalls.

While they were talking about all that, Violet noticed she was getting kind of funny looks, from Sally-Anne and Leanne. Lily sometimes too, but she didn't think that was the same thing? When she caught Lily looking at her she would turn away, her face going all red — Lily was obviously really shy, she thought that's all that was. But the other girls seemed...

It was hard to tell, Violet was bad with this stuff sometimes, but she thought they might be uncomfortable with someone who was supposed to be a boy staying in their room with them? She knew that was the sort of thing other people could be silly about, for reasons. That was a problem that she was pretty sure she could fix just by letting them know that she really was a girl — like, body-wise — but that would be kind of an awkward thing to bring up out of nowhere, while Professor Sprout was trying to tell them things. She should remember to mention it later, before bed.

The bathroom was sort of split in four parts, with the four different doors coming in each on a different wall — not in the middle of the wall, off-set, closer to the right side (or the left, inside of the bathroom looking out) — each of the four blocks with their own sinks and toilet and shower/bath stalls. They weren't actually walled off from each other, just, you could kind of see that there were four different parts to it, for each year that used it. Professor Sprout said they didn't need to stay in their section, if their stalls were all full they could go take an open one in the other parts — which might happen sometimes, because the different years had different schedules, and also the second- and third-year classes were a little smaller, but had the same sized bathroom. (Because of the war, Violet thought, there were five Hufflepuff girls in second year, and only three in third, and Mum said the class coming in next year was the smallest Hogwarts class ever.) Right in the middle of the room, between the four sections, was a tightly twisting spiral staircase leading upward, Professor Sprout led them that way.

Oh! This was a bath! Like, a public bath, she meant — not a huge one, like there were in magical towns sometimes, the scale more like the one in Ancient House. And it was super pretty! The bath wasn't a simple tub, instead sprawling out, the side of it wavering back and forth in random curves, pushing in here and pulling away there, and there were even islands in the middle of the bath, little bridges crossing over the water across the narrower parts or to the islands. The funny shape and the islands meant the water was never very wide in any one spot, despite the size of the floor space it was taking up...which meant that there was a lot of floor space around the bath where people could leave their things in reach, so, it had less water than if the whole space was just a big normal tub, but it could probably actually fit more people at once, when Violet thought about it.

And it was super pretty! With the ceiling, they did that thing like in the amphitheatre-like room, with the stone carved into a twisting tangled mat of tree branches, a nice warm glow of sunlight coming from up there — but tinted more toward orange and a little murkier, more like it was evening or early in the morning. The walls were painted like they were in the middle of a forest or something — not super realistic-looking, in a mediaeval style like the stuff down in the common rooms (but maybe a little newer?) — a bunch of trees and bushes and flowers, and there were animals, deer and foxes and birds, and even a couple unicorns over there, the baby ones, all golden and glowing. Violet noticed there were also a few people, half-hidden behind the tree trunks here and there and there, funny greenish-brownish skin and snowy white hair, forest nymphs...and a couple house-elves up in the branches of the trees?

Oohhh... She was remembering just now, in one of the old family stories, Lord Arcturus mentioned that house-elves used to be forest-elves, before the goblins caught them. (Mages later stole house-elves from the goblins, in the different wars they fought over the centuries.) That had happened a very long time ago, though, Violet didn't know if she'd ever seen or read anything about what elves had actually been like back then...

Anyway, the floor was covered in a big mosaic, super colourful. It was sort of a Celtic knot -like design, but the curling bands were obviously supposed to be vines, with leaves sprouting off of them all over the place, and blooming flowers speckled here and there, weaving together and curling around to follow along with the bends of the bath. Violet noticed that the vines sometimes twisted themselves into the shapes of runes, like the ones used in enchanting — she didn't know how to read those, couldn't guess what they said. The bath was already full, despite no one being here — as big as it was, it'd probably take a long time to fill — thin clouds of steam wafting through the air, smelling of some kind of flowers, and mint, and...clove, maybe? And the steam caught the fake sunlight coming down a little, taking on a soft gentle glow, filling the whole room, and—

And it was super pretty, she loved it! And even better, the ceiling was a little low, she guessed, but it was nice and open enough that it didn't feel cramped at all! It was much better than the stalls, Violet would definitely be having her baths up here instead.

Professor Sprout was explaining about the rules in here, most of which were things Violet already knew, or were just common sense. But she guessed the muggleborns probably wouldn't know things, like, you were supposed to rinse off in the showers (over there against the wall) before getting in the water, basic etiquette things in public baths, because they didn't really have those on the muggle side anymore. Also just, you know, not making people uncomfortable, and what to do if someone was making you uncomfortable, normal stuff. This bath was shared by all the girls, and there was another one on the boys' side — the bath out in the common rooms could be used by both, but you didn't see as many people in there very often, because people could be shy about that.

According to Professor Sprout, the one out in the common rooms was the original bath built when this part of the castle was home to Helga Hufflepuff's family (with some remodelling since). When they gave up the rooms and it was changed into a dormitory instead, they copied the original bath a couple times to make separate baths for the girls and boys — the Hufflepuffs had been pagan Danes, and back then they hadn't really cared about that sort of thing, but the Christians had been more particular about it, so. But then in the last century or two, as people got stuck-up enough to not be comfortable with open baths anymore — Professor Sprout actually said stuck-up, pulling a silly confused face, a couple of the girls giggled a little — they put in the shower/bath stalls back there. That was neat! That meant the art here was really old, or at least based on something from that long ago, and—

Oh! The carvings on the ceiling of the tangly tree branches in the baths, and back in the amphitheatre-like room, and also upstairs along Helga's Gallery, that had all been made by Helga Hufflepuff's nephew, like a thousand years ago! Apparently he also did the carvings on the main doors, but those were facing outside and got rained on, so they'd gotten worn down over the years, you couldn't make them out so well anymore. These were still in good shape, though! There were other things he made that were still around, here and there in the Castle, Violet didn't know that, that was so cool!

They were talking about that when there was a clomping of feet ringing on the stairs — these ones were made out of a metal mesh, Violet guessed for better traction, but they made it so shoes got kind of loud. "Ah, you are here, good!" Dora trotted over to their group, grinning. She'd changed clothes since the last time Violet saw her, now in denim shorts and a sleeveless top that showed a tiny little sliver of her waist when she moved, and she was also way more colourful, her fingernails turned yellow and red, her lips gone lavender, and little rainbow sparkles glittering around her eyes. "I was hoping I'd catch you in time. Hello again, littles! About done with the tour, then?"

The other girls looked a little confused, so Violet pointed at her and said, "That's Dora." She was pretty sure Dora's face looked a little different, and with the different clothes and the fake make-up (actually just changing herself to look like that), it wasn't a surprise that the other girls didn't recognise her right away.

"Only Violet gets to call me that — baby cousin privileges, you see — it's Tonks to the rest of you." Oh right, she forgot about that... "By the way, did they get your things to the right place? I remembered I probably should have asked, just a minute ago, sorry..."

Violet's voice locked up on her again, before she fought past it Professor Sprout answered for her. "Oh yes, Corri straightened that out for us."

"Good, good. Anyway, I wasn't sure anyone would have mentioned it, but there's always a party upstairs on the first night back, you girls can come if you want! But it is getting a little late for little kids, so if you want to get to bed, that's also cool. Bennie and I will be showing up around eight in the morning to bring you lot up to breakfast tomorrow, so keep that in mind."

None of the first-year girls felt like going up to the party tonight, which was pretty much what Violet expected. With the Sorting and everything, dinner started late to begin with, and it hadn't been a short meal, and then there was all the welcome to Hufflepuff stuff — the excitement of all the new things and new people could only keep a person going for so long. Violet had noticed some of the girls yawning a couple times, and she was pretty sleepy herself, she was probably going straight to bed as soon as Professor Sprout was done with the tour.

Dora didn't look surprised nobody wanted to come either, just shrugged it off. And then she asked Violet if she was too cool to get a good-night hug from her dorky big cousin, which was silly, hugs were nice! After letting go of Violet, Dora turned to the other girls. "Anyone else want a hug? I'm giving them away for free over here."

Violet was a little surprised when Sophie and Hannah both took a turn hugging Dora, but maybe she shouldn't be? Dora was great, she was sure everyone would figure that out pretty quickly.

Once the hugs were done, Dora disappeared back up the stairs — tripping over the first step and nearly slamming right down into them, of course. "Hey, wait a second," Sally-Anne said. "You go up to the older girls' bathroom...but down to ours."

"Yes, dear, that's how it goes," Professor Sprout said, sounding slightly confused.

"But...but we're on the same level! And, the bathroom! We come in on different sides, but the doors were all right next to each other in that first room. How does that work?"

Violet said, "Magic, Sally-Anne. Magical places d-d-do that."

"...Oh. Oh that's so cool!"

"It is! It, it, um, my house, the inside is a qua-quarter turn around from the outside, like that."

"Ooh! Why didn't McGonagall tell us about that stuff, that's so much cooler than just turning into a cat..."

Professor Sprout led them back downstairs and through the bathroom to their bedroom, Violet and Hannah and Leanne telling Sally-Anne and Sophie about some of the neat stuff in magical buildings. (Violet was getting the feeling that Lily really didn't talk much.) When they got back, Professor Sprout said that that was all they had for tonight — unless anybody had any questions? She reminded them that the enchantment keys were in their nightstand drawers, and how to call for an elf if they needed something. Dora would be coming to bring them up to breakfast, and then she and Bennie would be showing them around the school pretty much all day tomorrow, and then the day after that was the first day of classes. There was a last welcome to Hufflepuff, and then some goodnights, and Professor Sprout was leaving them alone, closing the door into the study space behind her.

For a couple minutes, they talked about some basic room stuff, like, if people wanted to have a specific one of the beds for whatever reason. Leanne wanted one of the beds nearest the bathroom — Violet thought there might be some medical thing, but she didn't come out and explain what it was, maybe private — and Lily wanted one of the ones in the middle of the room. They moved some of their trunks around, Violet levitating trunks for people — she also preferred having one of the beds in the middle, if that was fine with everyone? Yeah, Hannah said she could switch with her, thanks. Sophie said she had a problem with sleeping through alarms, could someone make sure she got up when she was supposed to in the morning? Violet was pretty sure the alarms built into their headboards were magic alarms, would startle them awake instead of just making noise, but sure, she could do that!

As soon as they had everything settled, knew where everyone would be sleeping, Violet opened the kittens' basket — Sparks and Diana immediately hid under her bed, which was about what she expected to happen. She got some treats out from her trunk and slid them under the bed, they'd come out when they were ready. None of the girls were allergic to cats, good, good...

Violet was getting sleepy, but she wanted to pack away some of her things quick. Kicking off her shoes, she started moving her clothes over to the wardrobe — just the robes and the dresses, mostly, things that should be hung up anyway. She also dug out her bracelets and things and set them up on her nightstand, and made double-sure that her noise amulet was somewhere she'd see it tomorrow morning. While she was doing that, some of the other girls had changed into nightdresses and stuff — or muggle-style fuzzy pyjama pants and a soft tee shirt, in Sophie's case, Lily in a magic-made version of the same idea — mostly while they were away in the bathrooms, coming back from doing whatever in sleep clothes.

Anyway, the robe she was wearing should also go up in her wardrobe — she hadn't spilled anything on it, and since she'd dressed in layers it wasn't soiled at all. Her dress and her pants could go right in the laundry, though. Violet plopped down on her bed to pull off her socks...and she heard the kittens crunching on the treats, they couldn't be too nervous, then.

"Um, Violet?"

"Yeah?" She looked up, then blinked — everyone was giving her funny looks...except for Lily, who was fiddling with her alarm, the back of her head turned to Violet. "What?"

"You know you're naked right now," Leanne said.

Violet glanced down at herself, and then back over at Leanne. "Yeah? Oh! Um...I mostly sleep naked, is that okay? I c- I c- I c– I have a nightdress I can wear, I g-guess..."

Sounding like she was trying not to laugh, Hannah said, "I think Leanne's just surprised you're a girl under there."

"Oh, yeah, I meant to say something about that..."

The bed bounced under Violet a little as Sophie thumped down next to her — she leaned around Violet's shoulder a little to look, which was maybe a little rude? Not that Violet cared, if she did she wouldn't have just taken her clothes off, she was just saying. "Everyone thought you were a boy though? That's so weird, how did that happen?"

"My father g-g-gave me a potion when I was baby."

Sophie frowned, maybe confused. "Your dad, just, turned you into a girl? Is that something people can do?"

"Yeah, it's just a potion," Hannah said. "Only lasts for a couple hours, but I guess they'd last forever for a metamorph, they're different..."

"And, it was the other way around — he turned me into a b-boy, and told everyone I was born like that. For silly noble family inheritance reasons, you know."

Hannah and Leanne both grimaced — apparently they did know about the sort of thing — but Violet wasn't sure how to read the look on Sally-Anne's face. Sophie still just seemed confused though. After a couple seconds, Hannah said, "Are you sure? I mean, how do you know it wasn't the other way around? Nobody even knew you weren't a boy, there were announcements and everything at the time..."

"My healer ch-ch-sh-tch– she can tell. Anyway—" Violet popped up to her feet, tossed her socks into the laundry basket. "—I need to g-g-go, back in a minute." She padded over to the bathroom, slipped into one of the toilet stalls.

By the time she got back, the lights had been put out, only the soft spots of light from the lamps left, and most of the girls were in bed already, or getting there. Lily and Sally-Anne had closed the curtains all around their beds, even. As she passed by Leanne's bed, Leanne — sitting at the foot of her bed, plaiting her hair — muttered, "Hey, Violet, um..." She glanced away for a second, awkward. "Sorry for being, um...you know, earlier."

...Violet didn't know, actually. Maybe being uncomfortable about the Violet Black is Harry Potter stuff? That was the only real guess Violet had, couldn't think of anything else Leanne had done to her — she hadn't noticed Leanne being mean at all, though. "That's okay. People didn't know I'm a g-g-g-girl, I kn– I know it's weird."

"Right, um. Good night?" Leanne still sounded all awkward, wasn't looking at her...but that could just be because Violet wasn't wearing anything at the moment, and people could be silly about that. She honestly couldn't tell which?

But it probably wasn't important, if there was a problem they could deal with it when it wasn't super late and Violet was sleepy. "Night." Violet walked up to her bed, turned down the covers, and then she heard a tiny little mew — Sparks was sitting right at her feet, looking up at her with her big shiny eyes. "Oh hello sweetie!" She bent over to pick Sparks up, "We're going to bed now, okay?" Giving the kitten a quick little kiss on the top of the head, she set her down on the bed, crawled in after her, and then clicked off her lamp.

Sparks curled up under the blankets tucked in against Violet's side — she was still nervous from the excitement of the day, she thought — and then the last lamp was clicked off. It wasn't totally dark in here with the lights out, there was still a very faint glow, outlining the shapes of the things in the room. Enough to get around in, but not enough that Violet could see it through her eyelids at all. There was a little bit of rustling from the bed next to her, as Sophie settled in.

And then it was silent, except for the subtle hiss of the five other girls breathing.

"Hey, Violet," Sophie whispered.

"Hmm?"

"Can I play with your kittens later?"

Violet hummed. "Remind me tomorrow."

"'Kay. Good night."

"Night."

Curling up with Sparks under the blanket, Violet smiled — at least her first night at Hogwarts wasn't going so bad.