Because magic was funny sometimes, the Hogwarts Express took different amounts of time to go between Hogsmeade and London. The tracks were hidden in warded space, and sometimes you could do funny things with that — the train always moved at more or less the same speed, but that was speed inside the warded space, which didn't always match the outside world the same. The trip up to the school at the beginning of the year took about seven hours — 11 in the morning to 6 in the evening, but the arrival time moved around a little too — and the trip down to London at the end of the year was a little shorter, at four or five hours. The trip down and up for the winter and Easter holidays, though, was much shorter, taking only about two hours.
According to Lily, whose family used to take the train down to London and back when she was too little to floo safely, that was actually the normal amount of time the train was supposed to take. That would be fast for a muggle train, especially an old-fashioned steam engine like what the Hogwarts Express looked like, but the funny warded space the tracks were in squished the distance together, so the train moved a lot faster than it really should. Part of the point of the beginning of the year trip was for students to catch up and stuff, and at the end of the year to properly say goodbye and arrange visits and whatever else, so they made the trip take longer on purpose.
This was part of an old tradition, actually, it was in Hogwarts: A History — when the school was new, some people could get there on their own, sure, but it was hard for a lot of people to travel long distances back then, so there would be a big caravan that started in Canterbury and wound its way up the island, picking up the students who couldn't get there along the way. Eventually they got special magical carriages that sped it up a lot, by flying and teleporting around, and could get to Brittany and Ireland that way. The old caravan took, like, weeks to make the whole trip, but these special carriages only took a couple days, so it was more convenient, so it became a thing everyone did, even if they could get to Hogwarts on their own, so the students could all hang out on the way up. They kept using those special carriages for centuries, until trains started becoming more popular, and they replaced them with the Hogwarts Express instead — the thing where everyone was expected to take the train from London no matter where they lived stayed...which meant people had to get to London now, which could also be inconvenient.
And sometimes was very very silly. Lily lived in Hogsmeade! she could walk home! Just getting to the station she was already most of the way there! But no, she was supposed to take the train all the way to London instead, it was stupid. Sure, her dad was going to meet her there, and they were going to floo over to Charing to get ice cream and hang out for a bit before going home, so it didn't sound bad, but still.
Breakfast was a little different on days the train was leaving. It started a little bit later, but the big difference was that food stayed on the table longer, kind of like on weekends. Most people went up to get breakfast at the normal time — or maybe a little later, Hufflepuff had had a party last night and a lot of people were sleepy and some of the older students had hangovers — but then they went back to their rooms to finish packing up, when they were done hanging around in the Great Hall chatting, snacking on things while they waited. That's what was normal in Hufflepuff, anyway, she guessed that'd be a lot of walking for Ravenclaw and Gryffindor. In the morning, everyone went up at more or less the same time, a flood of people streaming out of the dorms and upstairs.
Violet didn't go. She stayed holed up in the first years' dorm, with Susan and the kittens.
Susan came down yesterday, bringing her trunk with her. She hadn't packed up everything, since they'd just be coming back in a few weeks anyway, just bringing the things she wanted while she was gone — the other Hufflepuff girls were leaving a bunch of things behind, but Violet's trunk was pretty full, actually. There was school stuff she needed to bring, for homework, and most of her clothes she wanted to bring home, and also her art and embroidery stuff...she guessed she didn't need her potions things? There were some clothes and school stuff she was leaving behind, but most of it was in her trunk, her wardrobe and desk looking very empty. Susan stayed with them overnight, which was actually kind of nice? Everyone being friends was nice, yeah, but Violet also liked hugs, and sharing her bed with someone was like an all night hug, she liked it.
She did have to wear her nightdress, so Susan wouldn't be uncomfortable, but it was still nice.
With the all night hug and all, Violet did sleep a little better than normal — and so did Susan, because Violet didn't give her death-feelings — but she still woke up kind of...frazzled. School had been exhausting recently. Nothing had really happened since that time she was hexed, but, it felt like she never quite got better from that? The physical parts were better, she didn't know, it just seemed like everything took more energy than usual, especially, like, dealing with the Great Hall being loud and overwhelming, or talking. Since her friends payed attention, she knew she wasn't doing great, but also since they were nice, they didn't try to make her do stuff and, just, hung around like normal, not really drawing attention to her being more quiet than usual, just being there if she wanted to participate, which she honestly really really appreciated, enough a few times she almost started randomly crying for no reason. Didn't actually, because crying also took energy, but still.
She hadn't really said anything to thank people for being the best friends ever, not just for that but kind of everything this term at school — with all the things going on, she knew she didn't really make it easy to be her friend, she kind of got them in a lot of trouble. Partly because she wouldn't know how to say it? like what were the right words. She couldn't say things very well, but she could do things, so she had nice Christmas gifts planned and everything. Some of them were things she made, like drawings or simple beaded jewellery or whatever, because she remembered Mum saying that was special, but she also bought things — through owl-order or just asking her parents to do it for her — because Violet had money, so she could do that. She maybe kind of did a little much, but she really appreciated them, and words were hard, so.
Because the elves could be really nice, after everyone was gone Susan called for help, and they asked for breakfast. Only for one of them, which seemed to confuse the poor elf a little — once the food was here, Violet cast doubling charms on everything, Susan eating the copied ones. She did have special Seer-friendly food sent to the school for her, but it wasn't always good enough — Susan's special death Sight stuff was extra sensitive, and different from other Seers, normal Seer-friendly stuff didn't always work — and she actually liked the stuff Violet conjured better anyway. Violet still wasn't sure what Susan meant by it tasting like her magic, but that clearly wasn't a bad thing, and it made Susan happy, so Violet just didn't think about it too hard.
There was some last-minute packing Violet had to do, but after that they just sat around, occasionally talking about something but mostly not — talking took energy, and Violet was frazzled — mostly just playing with the kittens, watching them zip around chasing the toys. They were all big! She knew they were only kittens, so they were going to get bigger...huge, probably, because kneazles were bigger than normal cats. They still looked very kitten, their paws and their heads and especially their eyes being very big for their size, which Violet thought meant they still had a lot of growing left to do. And they still acted like kittens, all excitable and playful, and kind of clumsy, sometimes tripping over something and going all floppy. They were noticeably bigger, though, like...not twice the size, maybe an extra half? And they were still sweeties! Even playing and getting all excited Sparks would still come over once in a while for scritches, rubbing against Violet's leg and mewing up at her, aaahhhh...
Eventually, the rest of the Hufflepuffs started turning up, a couple of them hanging around in the middle room but most of the girls going one way and the boys the other, to finish packing up. Violet left it until almost the last moment possible before shutting the kittens up in their basket — though, she didn't feel as bad as she might, since she could tell all the playing was tiring them out, they could probably use a nap anyway. During the last rush in the dorm, people running to get their things, Violet got her noise amulet out of her bookbag, relaxing a little as the chatter and the noises of people moving things immediately cut off. She quick shrunk her trunk, tucked it into her bookbag, and then she was ready to go. Some people were still running around getting ready, but Violet and Susan and Lily and Sally-Anne were all done, and that was enough to fit in one of the carriages anyway. They would go get a compartment on the train, okay, see you later.
Hugging the kittens' basket with both arms, Violet kind of ignored what was going on around her. The kittens weren't happy about being shut up, but they were also sleepy, so they weren't making a fuss, just curled up together all tight like they were scared. She stuck a finger through one of the little holes in the basket, and Diana stretched up to sniff at it, Sparks blinking up at her through the weave of the basket — oh, it's okay sweeties, just a couple hours and you can be let out again...
Someone got her attention with a tug on her jumper, she glanced around to find Sally-Anne looked at her. Once she saw Violet was paying attention, so her amulet wouldn't block it, she asked, "Have you heard about that?" She pointed over to the right — they were in the Entrance Hall, Sally-Anne was pointing to where the big hourglasses with the house points were. Though Violet couldn't see them very well right now, a small crowd of older kids gathered around them.
...Obviously she'd heard of the hourglasses before, that must not be what Sally-Anne meant. "Um, d-don't think so."
"Prefect Dora lost a hundred fifty points, it didn't come until after dinner last night — most of us didn't find out until this morning, at breakfast. We're in last place now."
Oh no! That was a lot of points! They had been in second place before, and, the points were close enough that losing that many made a big difference, they'd probably never catch up. "What happened?" Losing a hundred fifty points all at once was a lot — Violet didn't think she'd ever heard of more than, like, twenty or so at a time. Maybe fifty, if you did something really bad. But a hundred fifty? How?!
Sally-Anne didn't answer right away, but after a second she glanced in a direction. After a while doing this, she realised what that meant, followed her gaze quickly enough she only missed the first couple syllables of what Susan was saying. "—know if you heard, three Gryffindors were in hospital for a couple days, with some stubborn hexes on them. Third- or fourth-years? I don't remember."
Violet had a bad feeling all of a sudden. But even though she didn't really want to know, she probably should know anyway, so she made herself ask. "Um...why d-d-d-did she d-do it?"
Susan gave her a funny, flat, serious look. "They were the ones who hexed you, a couple weeks ago. One of them did it, but the other two were there, helped to make sure they wouldn't be caught. Dora tracked them down somehow."
...Yeah. Yeah, Violet kind of guessed that was what happened. Ducking her head a little, staring down at the kittens, she muttered, "Sorry." She wasn't entirely sure what she was apologising for, but— Well, no, okay, she wasn't the one who lost the points, but Dora only did it because she went to the toilet on her own and got hexed like an idiot. It was kind of her fault, when you thought about it.
While she was...maybe moping a little — the Hufflepuffs had been so nice to her, she didn't want to make trouble for them! — she felt Sally-Anne grab onto her arm. Which was a little bit of a surprise, Sally-Anne wasn't nearly as clingy as Sophie. "It's okay, Violet. Everyone was talking about it at breakfast, and I don't think most people care. Mostly we're just glad someone found them, and that no one will probably do it again — Prefect Dora is scary sometimes." There was a little bit of a pause, their group nearing the main entrance, before Sally-Anne added, "Lily just said you mess with one Hufflepuff, you mess with all of us, but I don't think you heard it."
Her throat burning, Violet turned back to stare at Sparks and Diana through the basket. She didn't think her voice would work right now, so she just nodded.
(She didn't know what to do about all of Hufflepuff being so nice to her. Maybe she could do something nice for the whole house, but she wouldn't know what. Maybe she should write to Professor Sprout about it?)
Violet wasn't really surprised that Hermione was standing out on the steps, waiting for her. Hermione didn't have any friends in Gryffindor...or really anyone besides Violet? Maybe Padma, and she got along with Susan and Olivie and Daphne okay, but that was really it. Most people found Hermione really grating — Violet's friends tried to be nice, since Hermione was her friend, but she could tell they didn't like her much. Which was fine, as long as they were nice and Hermione wasn't bothering them too much, like enough they were getting angry about it, that was fine. Five of them could fit just fine in one carriage, so they waited in the short line to get one.
The carriages looked like they drove themselves to most people, but they were actually pulled by thestrals. They looked kind of creepy, but in a cool way? They looked sort of like horses, but were solid black, and super super skinny, she could easily see the shape of some of their bones, and they had big scaly dragon-looking wings. She didn't like them, but she could admit they looked kind of cool, it might be neat to put them in some more dramatic art stuff. Like happened a lot of times during silences, Hermione was babbling about something — Violet had taken off her amulet as they left the Entrance Hall, so she could hear the whole thing — this time about where the carriages came from, and why Hogwarts had a whole herd of thestrals (the largest in all of Europe, apparently). Violet knew most of this already, it'd been in Hogwarts: A History, but it was still fun to hear Hermione talk about something she thought was interesting, she was always so enthusiastic about stuff.
She got why some people might not like Hermione much, but she kind of thought she was adorable? Was that the right word? Yeah, she thought so, Hermione was adorable when she got like this.
Anyway, that led smoothly into a babble about thestrals, which Hermione didn't know as much about as she would like — the book about magical creatures she looked them up in didn't even have drawings, since the person who wrote it couldn't see them. Susan jumped in to describe them for her, since she could see them just fine. Hermione was very jealous, until she realised that Violet and Lily could also see them, and then she abruptly went quiet. Violet was pretty sure she was even biting her lip to make herself stop talking, her face going very red. She'd been halfway through saying something about only being able to see them if you saw someone die, when she'd apparently realised saying she was jealous they could see them was kind of, you know.
Except only one of them had actually seen someone die. Susan could see them for Death Prophet reasons, and illusions and stuff just didn't work on Violet most of the time, she could see lots of things she wasn't supposed to. (Or couldn't see things she was supposed to, like with the telescopes up the Astronomy Tower.) Lily must have, though, maybe a great-grandparent or something? Violet didn't know, and that seemed like a bad thing to ask, so their group just went awkwardly silent, conversation not starting up again until after their carriage started moving.
Nothing much happened during the train ride. Susan and Hermione and Lily and Sally-Anne and Violet got a compartment, and they were joined a bit later by Sophie and Hannah and Olivie and Daphne and Padma and Lisa and Tracey. Twelve people was kind of too much to fit in one compartment very easily — Fay and Wayne actually came by to say hello, but didn't stay, because it was too full — so after a little bit of hanging around talking their group split up, Olivie and Padma and Daphne and Tracey going to a compartment one over. Violet got up and went with them, because too many people in one little room was loud, and kind of making her feel all bleh — Hermione came with her, making six total in their compartment, but that wasn't so bad, especially since Tracey didn't talk much, and the other girls were way quieter than, like, Sophie or Hannah.
A few people came by to say hello during the trip, but it was mostly pretty quiet, nobody made a point of bothering Violet in particular. She spent most of it snuggled up with Olivie, who didn't even say a word about it, just squirmed into a more comfortable spot, her arm looping around Violet, and went back to talking with the other girls like nothing happened. They got a few funny looks from Hermione and Tracey, but Violet didn't care — she was still feeling bleh, and hugs were nice, and Olivie obviously didn't mind, so there.
The ride felt like it went even faster than it should, at least to Violet. She might have fallen asleep on Olivie? or kind of just floated half-asleep or something? At least she didn't drool on Olivie or anything...or if she did she didn't notice.
When Violet was shook awake the train had stopped already, but they didn't move to get out of the compartment right away. The little corridor running down the length of the train had very quickly gotten very full, and her friends guessed correctly that Violet didn't want to push their way through that if they could hep it. And neither did Hermione, really — they would both prefer to wait for the crowd to thin a bit, and Olivie and Padma and Daphne and Tracey didn't mind waiting. While they were sitting waiting they talked about what they were going to do over the holiday.
There was going to be a big festival around the winter solstice at the Greenwood, as there always was. Since the Greenwood commune was the largest of the Mistwalkers, they normally invited a lot of the other clans over for the holiday, so it wasn't just all the people in their village there, it was a really big deal. Tracey was staying with the Greengrasses for the whole winter break, her mum would meet her there and everything — Violet was aware that Tracey didn't get along with her family, she didn't really know what was going on with that. Olivie's family were kind of...Mistwalker-ish — they had a lot of similar religious stuff, inspired by them, but they weren't part of them, it was complicated — so they also had a big holiday around then, like the Greengrasses lasting for like a whole week. At some point during that week, Olivie would probably floo over the Greenwood to say hello, it was pretty common for people to visit, it was a whole thing.
Hermione was going to France for Christmas. Her dad was born in France, and her family normally switched between spending the holidays here at home or at her French grandmother's house — this year was a French year. She didn't seem very excited about it though? She didn't say much, but Violet got the feeling that she didn't get along with her French family, though it was hard to say why. (Maybe they just weren't great at dealing with the autism stuff, that could be all it was.) Padma's family weren't really doing anything. They had a different calendar back in Maharashtra — that's what the country they were from was called, which was in India somewhere (magical and muggle countries were different sometimes) — and the winter break at Hogwarts didn't line up with any of their festivals and things. There was a big one around Hallowe'en, apparently, and one that was like a week after they were supposed to be back at school, it was kind of annoying. Spending all their time in Britain was actually new, they used to jump back and forth all the time, Padma didn't like that they were starting to miss important things now.
Daphne obviously thought this was sad, but instead of saying she was sorry or whatever, she just invited all of the Patils to the Greenwood for the solstice all bright and cheerful. Which was a very Daphne thing to do, Violet thought.
This winter break was actually kind of busy for Violet, what with Christmas and Mum and Muime's betrothal ceremony — Hermione asked what that was, apparently it was an old-fashioned Catholic thing, it would be in Muime's church and everything — and then there was also Muime's official adoption into the Blacks, lots of stuff going on. There was a little bit of confusion about them getting married but Muime also being adopted — no see, it wasn't legal for two women to get married in magical Britain, but Muime could be adopted, and then she'd be a Black proper, which was important for reasons to do with babies...and also money and stuff, she guessed...
Yeah, there were going to be babies! Mum was a metamorph, obviously, that was how.
(Hermione had a lot of questions about how metamorphs worked when it came to babies and stuff, and also things like chromosomes, but some of that was starting to get over Violet's head and also did Hermione actually want sex questions answered right now? Because Violet did know how that stuff worked — it'd been part of the anatomy lessons she'd had with Mum ages ago — but they might embarrass the other girls if they talked about it right this second...)
Out the window, they could see the platform was starting to thin out a bit — Padma slid the door open, and yeah, the hall was empty, they could go now. Violet picked up her bookbag (still with her shrunken trunk) and the kittens' basket, and they filed out of their compartment, making for the nearest exit off the train. It was still a bit noisy on the platform, but it wasn't that bad, she knew it would have been a lot worse if they hadn't stalled for a bit. Once they were off and a short distance away from the train, Violet paused to look around...but she didn't see Mum or Muime right away. There were still too many people moving around, she was getting a headache, it was hard to pick anyone out...
"Sailí!" She followed the call of what had kind of just become her name in Gaelic, and there was Muime, slipping out of the melting crowd from the direction of the newsstand over there. In linen trousers and a poofy wool jumper, her bright orange-ish hair had gone a little long, brushing over her shoulders — it'd been a while since she'd cut it, Violet thought she was maybe growing it out? — but she didn't make out very much before her vision started going all wavery, messed up by tears welling up in her eyes.
Which was silly! It hadn't been that long since she'd seen Muime — she saw Mum more often, since Muime had a proper normal-person job, but there wasn't really anything stopping Mum from popping up to the school whenever she felt like it, but it'd still only been...a couple weeks, maybe? Violet had been a little worried about going away to a boarding school for months, but her parents both visited now and then, so it wasn't that bad. But even though it really hadn't been that long, she still very suddenly felt like she was going to start crying, her eyes going all hot and prickly and watery and her throat tense and hot...
Before she forgot, she set the kittens down on the floor, and then Muime was here, sinking down to her knees in front of Violet, and then her arms were wrapped tight around her, Violet's hands fisting in her jumper, her breath thick with tears and the familiar smell of the rosehip oil Muime used in her hair. Hissed against the top of her head, Muime whispered, "I missed you, sweetheart. Welcome home."
Violet wasn't actually home yet...and was even further from home than she'd been earlier today, since London was further away from the Refuge than Hogsmeade was. But she still cried like a baby anyway. That was maybe a little bit pathetic — she was eleven — but she was tired and Muime smelled all nice and homey and she'd missed her and she didn't care.
After a little while — Mum showed up at some point during, Muime passing Violet over to give her a tearful hug too — she calmed down again. She felt even more tired, and kind of wrung out, her throat and her sides hurting a little. But she didn't really feel bad, all soft and fuzzy and warm and... She didn't know, sometimes she felt better after crying, but also she'd like to go home now, please.
Except they didn't go home right away. Not everyone had left yet — Susan and Padma with her sister and their mum and Wayne with his parents were standing back at a polite distance, talking with each other as they waited. Violet wondered if she should try to clean up before going over to say hello, but obviously they all already knew she'd been crying like a baby, so whatever, she didn't care. Padma's mum was the first to say hello when they got there, turning and smiling all bright and friendly, saying it was nice to finally meet Violet and Padma had written all about her and stuff. (They had met before, at noble kid tea parties, but the adults mostly didn't talk to the kids much at those.) Mrs Patil was super nice! And also she was really pretty, with her long shiny black hair with beads and stuff in it, and curly golden jewellery (multiple earrings, which was rare in magical Britain), her Indian-style dress all super colourful and glittery, Violet loved it. The fancy rich British mages mostly dressed all boring, other countries were way more interesting, like in Asia or the Americas...
Wayne's parents introduced themselves all stiff and formal, and Violet thought they maybe tried to dress up a little bit? In more normal British magical clothes, but not noble stuff — the Hopkinses were in House Abernathy, they were pretty well off but still commoners — Mr Hopkins was in a suit, but the magical style, the trousers and jacket (longer than muggle suits) in deep blue and the waistcoat in leafy green with pretty yellow and red embroidery, Mrs Hopkins in a long formal dress in yellow and blue and white, with pretty lace and a corset and everything. From how polite and formal and nice they were being, focussed on Mum, Violet was getting kind of a funny feeling. Had Wayne's parents...dressed up to meet Mum? like, trying to make a good first impression, she meant. Maybe it wasn't just for Mum, there would have been other big important people picking up their kids for the holidays too, but Wayne wasn't friends with all of them.
She noticed that Wayne was staring down at the floor, his face very red, so she decided, yeah, that was probably what was going on, and Wayne was a little embarrassed about it. There was really no reason for that — Violet was used to all the nobles trying to keep up social connections and stuff, this was really no different — but Wayne could be shy about stuff, so whatever. When they said good-bye, Violet hugged both Padma and Wayne, making sure that Wayne's was extra long and nice to make sure he knew she wasn't annoyed about his parents being silly.
(That just made his face go even more red, of course, but Violet thought it was worth it.)
Susan didn't leave — her mum was busy at work, with all the things going on at the Ministry, so she'd be staying with them through dinner. Mum would bring her home later. She said Lily and her dad went with their muggleborn friends to meet up with their parents out in the train station, they were going to try to hang around a while if they wanted to go say hello. Violet was kind of tired, but she guessed she should probably go anyway, since everyone was being friendly and stuff.
By the time they got out onto the muggle side of the station, Hermione, Sophie, Lily, Sally-Anne, and their parents were all still hanging around talking. (Justin and his mum had been here, but they'd had to leave already.) It wasn't just their parents though, there were a bunch of little kids too — both Sophie and Sally-Anne had baby siblings. Sophie's parents and Lily's dad were nice! but Sally-Anne's parents seemed a little uncomfortable, her dad kept giving Mum and Muime funny looks, she didn't know what that was about.
The people she talked to the most were Hermione's mum and dad, even if that was for kind of embarrassing reasons. When the introductions went around, Hermione told her parents that she was the same Violet she told them about, and then Mrs Granger came right out and said she was very pleased that Hermione made a friend, making it obvious that this had never happened before. Which, maybe that wasn't the nicest thing to say in front of everyone?! The little kids mostly seemed to miss what she was implying, but the adults gave Hermione and her mum funny looks...but Hermione didn't seem to notice, so, maybe Mrs Granger was just used to Hermione not caring about saying embarrassing things? Violet guessed it wasn't her business, but still...
Violet very quickly learned that Mr and Mrs Granger didn't want her to call them that — they were Daniel and Emma, or Doctor Granger if she really must. (They were both dentists.) Daniel was tall and thin, with super curly hair — like Hermione's, but darker — wore thick glasses, and spoke English with a slight hint of an accent, which made sense, if he was from France. Emma was less tall — but still pretty tall for a woman, close to Síomha — with curly dirty blonde hair, and seemed to be teasing all the time, a bouncy lilt on her voice that sounded kind of teasing to Violet. Emma was the one to talk first, but Daniel pretty quickly took over the conversation, with lots of questions about stuff, thankfully turning more to Mum as Violet got a little overwhelmed.
She guessed she knew where Hermione got her ability to talk super fast all the time — Daniel even did the same thing where it didn't even seem like he was breathing.
Daniel and Emma had so many questions, which Violet guessed made sense? They were probably worried about Hermione. She knew that having a friend for the first time was kind of a big deal, and they might be a little worried that Violet would be mean, and would turn out bad for her, and since Violet was being quiet and not doing a great job of paying attention talking to her parents was the next best thing to figure that out. Also, she guessed they might be even more worried about Hermione being off at a boarding school for months at a time — they both had autism-related issues, but at least Violet was pretty good at making friends — and also the magical world would be all new to them, which would make it extra scary. Especially with Hermione being muggleborn, a lot of people didn't like muggleborns, even if they weren't, you know, full evil kill them all racist about it — there were degrees to these things. Though, did Daniel and Emma even know about all that? They were new, and Violet got the impression from Hermione before that McGonagall had kind of glossed over that stuff talking to the muggleborns and their families, so maybe not...
Unless the Grangers bought a whole bunch of books at the big muggleborn shopping trip, anyway. But even then, a lot of the history books were kind of...polite about it? She didn't think that was the right word, quite. Whatever, Daniel and Emma were probably worried, but not as much as they maybe should be.
Except they shouldn't be now, because obviously Violet was going to look out for Hermione, so she'd be okay. But Daniel and Emma didn't know that for sure, so, many many questions.
Sally-Anne and her parents slipped away while everyone was talking — she did say goodbye, sneaking up for last hugs from Sophie and Violet, but Violet wasn't sure if the adults even noticed — and it looked like the little Perkses were getting a bit antsy when, out of nowhere, Emma suggested that they have dinner together tonight to talk more. This Hermione actually did seem embarrassed about, hunching in a little and her face going all red. That was super random, she got that the Grangers had all the questions, but still.
"Um..." Violet glanced up at her parents, and then over the rest of the group. They were just going to get magic pizza and ice cream, and have a quiet night at home...
"We'll have to pass this time, I'm afraid," Mr Perks said. "We have a long trip home ahead of us — we really should be on our way..."
Nodding along, Lily's dad said, "We have plans for the evening already. It's about time we should get going, if we want to make it to Fortescue's."
Well, okay, if all the little kids weren't around, that would be better, but she still didn't want to... By dinner Emma meant, like, at a restaurant, and she didn't want to do that. There were some goodbyes with the Perkses and the Moons, Violet getting last hugs with Sophie and Lily, and then they were leaving. Before the conversation could quite start up again, Violet blurted out, "About the, the... We were p-planning on g-g-g– magic pizza, and, stay inside, so. Can, can, can, can we still do that?"
"I don't see why not," Mum said. Reaching over to run a hand through Violet's hair, "But if you're too tired for company, we can put it off to some other time."
"Um, if I have a, a, a b-bit to change and c-c-cool off, I'll be fine."
"Where do you lot live?" Emma asked. "We'll need to move the car anyway, so there might be more than enough time to unwind while we're on the way."
Her face still rather pink, pouting down at the floor, Hermione muttered, "They live in Ireland, Mum."
"Ah. Well, that complicates matters somewhat..."
"It needn't necessarily," Mum said with a casual little shrug. "I think it may be most convenient for me to ride along with you, and then apparate you straight over to ours for dinner. Then at the end of the evening, I can simply apparate you home."
"Is that some magical transportation method, apparate?"
While Mum answered Daniel's questions about apparation, which led into some more stuff about travel and Ireland not being a separate country on the magical side — Muime was being snarky about that — Violet noticed that Hermione still looked a little shrunken, her face all pink, not saying anything. She glanced up at the adults, but they weren't paying the kids that much mind, she shuffled closer to Hermione, leaned over to talk quiet like. "D-d-do you not want to come? I can call it off."
Hermione froze for a moment, then shrugged. "I don't know. It's okay, I guess. I was looking forward to returning home, but a few additional hours isn't too bad. What's magic pizza?"
"It's great! B-better than normal pizza, way better. We, we can talk about t-t-toppings later." There were a few food things Hermione didn't like the feel of, or the taste, she could be picky — Violet had been paying attention, and she didn't think anything that would be on magic pizza should be a problem? But they could ask just to be sure. She could always just have her own little pizza, if it came down to it. "Um, it's okay if you d-don't want to come...but, if you do, you can show your p-parents magic?"
Perking up a little, Hermione turned to frown at her — or, near her, anyway, Hermione's eyes pointed about at Violet's left shoulder. "I thought we weren't allowed to use magic outside of school. They can detect magic somehow, we can get in trouble with the Ministry."
"We're not allowed to use magic unsupervised. If there are g-g-g-dzzhh– adults there, it's fine."
Hermione stared, unblinking, for a few long seconds. "That's not fair."
It was a little hard for Violet to hold in a smile. She didn't know why, the flat, serious way Hermione said that, it was just cute, was all. "It's not, yeah."
Seeming to come to a decision, Hermione got the adults' attention, and said, yeah, she did want to go have dinner with them, they should do that. Violet had kind of thought all the questions on random tangents were just because Daniel and Emma were like that — but as soon as Hermione expressed an opinion one way or the other, they were suddenly all business, talking about how they'd actually get there and everything. Had they been stalling to give Hermione time to make up her mind? If they were it'd been too subtle for Violet to notice, and also, that was nice of them? Both doing it at all and being subtle about it, so Hermione wouldn't feel too pressured and get nervous about it. She wasn't really surprised Hermione's parents were nice, but still.
Things went very quickly from there, planning out how everything would go. Mum was going to go with Daniel and Emma while they drove home — they lived in Oxford, the trip would take a little bit, maybe two hours with traffic, which would give Violet enough time to change and stuff, so that was good. Muime would take Violet, Susan, and Hermione somewhere quiet, where they'd be able to apparate home without being noticed. As the plan was coming together, Hermione went into her trunk to get her wand, so she'd be able to show off magic to her parents. She actually seemed a little bit excited about that, almost bouncing on her toes and making little impatient ticking noises with her tongue, which was also cute.
As they walked off, Muime talked about what order they should go in. She only felt confident apparating them one at a time, especially because they had luggage, and kittens. Violet would go first, because of the kittens, and because she would need to be there to help Susan after (being touched by other people was bad for her), and Muime didn't want to leave Hermione alone after being side-alonged for the first time. After a bit of wandering around, they found an empty bathroom, Muime quickly put an attention-diverting spell over the door so they wouldn't be interrupted. Muime took the basket, put the kittens to sleep with a charm — then, with an arm around her back to firmly hold her opposite shoulder with one hand, Muime apparated Violet home.
The moment of spinny squeezing blackness was short, thankfully, but Violet was still feeling a little sick and dizzy after anyway. Grimacing, her eyes closed, she felt Muime wrap her up in a hug (she was on her knees again), quick little kisses peppering her hair and her face. Muttering in Gaelic, Muime said, "I am glad you're back. Eleven is far too young to be off at boarding school for so long."
Leaning further into Muime, Violet nodded. "Yeah, I'm glad I'm back too."
But Muime couldn't stay for long, she had to go back to get the other girls. Wiping her eyes again — she didn't know why she kept crying, it was silly — Violet glanced around. Muime had taken her straight to her bedroom — she had seen Muime and Mum now and then, but she hadn't been in her room since she left in August. It was the same as she'd left it, her bed made, her desk looking kind of empty with all her writing and art stuff gone, only a few knick-knacks she'd picked up while travelling for Mum's duelling stuff. There were drawings and posters all over her walls, the drawings mostly her own stuff, random things that looked nice, the posters mostly art prints she picked up in one country or another. It was very clean, even smelled clean, without any of the hints of soap or tea or whatever else that ended up lingering around just from being lived in.
It was still her room, though — her room, the one Mum gave her after rescuing her from the Dursleys, that she'd been allowed to fix up however she liked, where she'd lived for years. Just seeing it, being here again after months away, she almost started crying again.
Her first term at Hogwarts had been exhausting. It really was good to be home.
But they were having guests tonight, she should get changed and stuff — she hoped the Grangers didn't mind if she was just wearing comfy lazy staying-at-home clothes...