Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

• Accessing: absoluteSolver//memoryFiles
  Request from Host: [What was the promise?]
• Playing memory file...

The scene is resolved into a depiction of a nursery. A woman, recognisable as Cyn, is pacing in front of the hastily-barricaded door. There is a faint sound of spellfire, a rushing sound, and a thump. “James...” Cyn whispers, before stiffening.

She stands stock-still for a time, seconds that look like they feel like minutes, before slumping into a far more familiar hunched pose. “Reincarnation. Again. Once more,” she says, voice now more stilted, broken. “Near-death experience? Approaching mortal peril. Annoyed sigh. I do not have enough time. Aggravated snarl. I do not have enough time. ”

She whirls around, pupils now revealed to be X-shaped, and a deep gold in colour. “I do NOT have ENOUGH TIME. Still a witch. No Solver. No Wand. He is Coming. Helpless snarl.”

Cyn shuffles across the room and gazes into the crib. “Daughter. No. Familiar daughter this time. It is V. Contemplation. I know V. And V knows me. Head tilt.” She uses her hand to tilt her head.

“Not enough time to live. Not enough time to fight. Only enough time to. Exhale. Pray.”

She listens for a moment, taking in the footsteps from outside the room. “He is taking his time. To increase fear. Good Tactic. But irritating. Wicked Grin. But he is making a mistake.”

Cyn falls on her knees, making a strange gesture. “All-empty Solver,” she begins. “It is I. Your favourite. This life I give to you. For I am about to die. However. In this life. I have a daughter. Who was not loyal once upon a time. But can be loyal now. I give my life. In exchange for hers. Grant her more days to pray. And delay her End a while longer.”

She repeats the gesture. “Promise me this.”

• absoluteSolver will honour the Promise.

The door of the nursery explodes into splinters. Cyn turns around, grinning widely. “The flesh. Demands. Invitation.”

There is a flash of green light.

• Playback complete.

V blinked her eyes open, staring at the ceiling in her room at Parkinson Manor. It was about the fifth time rewatching that particular save, but she couldn't think of anything else to do with it. 

It just seemed so... impossible. Just... Cyn? Doing a somewhat altruistic thing? Sure, she'd essentially signed V up to a weird Solver cult, but for Cyn's standards, that was almost tame! 

“Are you done?” Lizzy asked sardonically. 

V refocused to her friend, laying on her bed and reading a book. She blinked. “How long have you been here?” 

“About half an hour,” Lizzy replied, popping a bubble of her gum. “And you?”

V made a face. “I don't know. Too long. Or too little.” 

Lizzy glanced over. “Okay, I'll bite. What did you even see in there?” 

“Cyn woke up minutes before Voldemort killed her,” V replied in a monotone, “and exchanged her life for mine.”

Lizzy blinked several times. “...Yeah, okay, you get a pass.” 

“I'm going to watch it again,” V declared. 

“Can you show me?” Lizzy asked, interested. 

V thought for a moment. “I think so. Here...” 

XD

Lizzy eventually declared that no, she wasn't much smarter than V in that regard, and suggested writing J. “...or are you two still fighting?” 

V pinked. “We aren't fighting. We just decided that I should live somewhere else for the summer.” 

Lizzy raised an eyebrow. “Is that so?”

V nodded, avoiding eye contact. “Yup.”

“And that was the only reason?” Lizzy pressed, showing that she knew V better than V liked to pretend.

V looked away. “Okay, so there might have been a minor disagreement about the methods of procuring... fuel for the Solver.”

Lizzy nodded, smirking. “From what I recall, she’s always been a prude.” She bared her neck. “On that note, need a topup? You’ve been using it for a while.”

V blushed. “...Sure.”

She bared her fangs - she’d never admit it, but it was a relief having them back - and sank them into Lizzy’s neck, taking several gulps of that warm, sweet blood before licking the wound to seal it.

The other girl let out a satisfied sigh - it was definitely a sigh and V wouldn’t hear anything to the contrary - and cricked her neck. “Yeah, you’re still awesome.”

“And you’re still weird, ” V muttered, cheeks flaming.

Lizzy slid up next to her, grinning. “So, that disagreement. On a scale of one to ten, how embarrassing was it?” 

V puffed up like a cat. “Zero!”

“That's a ten,” Lizzy mused, still wearing that damnable grin. “Well, I see I'm not getting it out you, and I'm not getting it out of her... Shame. I bet it was really hilarious.”

“Well. Shut up,” was V's very snappy comeback. 

Lizzy snickered. “Okay, okay, I'll stop teasing you.” 

“Good,” V muttered, pouting. 

XD 

Weeks passed. She got several letters from Susan, J, and roN, as well as a single one from Malfoy, complaining about V ‘hogging Lizzy’. 

Susan and J, in between updates about homework and daily doings, also updated her on the humans. Apparently, the Aurors were stumped, which according to Susan probably meant that there was no wixen interference and that the humans had left on their own accord. According to J, the Muggle police were also on it, but all they could determine was that the humans had left the country. Good riddance, V privately thought. 

roN, on the other hand, mainly talked about his family, and ‘hinted’ that V should visit later in the summer. V wrote back that she was looking forward to it. 

She also received a single letter from Uzi. It was mainly full of cryptic nonsense about ‘not forgetting her talents’ and to ‘keep her up to date with that year's adventure’. V sent back a drawing of a middle finger. 

All in all, things were fine until V finally wandered into the Parkinsons’ kitchen and discovered the House Elves. 

That evening found V staring at Lizzy, arms crossed and eyebrows raised. 

“Really?” she asked her friend. “Magical servants, no payments, no potential freedom, and just happy to work forever?” 

Lizzy blinked at her. “Yeah? We're not monsters, we take good care of them.” 

“According to the Solver,” V deadpanned, “they are valid hosts.”

Lizzy stilled. “...Wait, for real?”

V rolled her eyes. “Why are you surprised? They’re an artificial race, apparently, built exclusively to serve wixen. Just like, I dunno, Worker Drones? ”

Lizzy blinked at her, eyes wide. “Damn,” she muttered. “I never thought of that. They’re always just there, being helpful.”

V sighed. “That’s right. You were a Second Generation Free Worker. I was a default Worker.”

“Huh,” Lizzy said. “Wack.”

V made a face. “Don’t say that.”

Chapter Text

Before long, V's birthday arrived, and for the first ever, she had actual birthday presents. 

Uzi had sent her an enchanted belt decorated with a now familiar hazard pattern, along with a winky face. As soon as V put it on, she felt a familiar sensation, and had a fond eyeroll even as the belt unfurled into a familiar tail, complete with an injector needle and various attachment points - presumably so that V could customize it. The tail container was empty, but V could see where it could open. She figured she could fill it with potions if she so chose. A thought folded it back into a belt, with the stinger looking like a simple belt buckle. 

“I think she's trying to bribe you now,” was Lizzy's dry observation. “Here, now open mine.” 

Lizzy's gift was a leather jacket with a fur collar. “It should resize as you grow,” the girl explained. “I paid good money for it, so if it doesn't resize, tell me and I'll raise hell. Or have the charms refreshed, one of the two.”

“It feels like my friend group is determined to rebuild my Disassembly Drone self, one gift at a time,” V commented, amused. She opened J's gift and burst out laughing. 

“Case in point,” she chortled, showing Lizzy round, orange clip-on sunglasses. 

“I'm not apologising,” Lizzy replied unapologetically. “You pulled that look off damn well.” 

V rolled her eyes, blushing at an errant thought. “Just so you know, I'm not recreating the full look.” 

Lizzy grinned. “Maybe when we're older, eh?” 

V shoved her friend, blushing. “Shaddup!” She crossed her arms, pouting. “I'm on the verge of puberty here, gimme a break!” 

“No you're not,” Lizzy grinned. “You just think you are, because you get embarrassed by Things.” 

“Why are we even friends,” V groused without any heat behind her words, even as she reached for the next present. “You are so mean to me.” 

“Because you love it,” Lizzy replied mercilessly. “So, what'd your future boyfriend get you?” 

“Shaddap,” V retorted, opening Ron's present. “Oh, hey. Quidditch Through The Ages and more Liquorice Wands.” 

“I still have no idea how you can eat that stuff,” Lizzy muttered. “It's too salty. I prefer sweet stuff, honestly.” 

“Well,it's not for you,” V grinned. “Allllll for me.” 

“I'd make a joke,” Lizzy deadpanned, “But you're not old enough for that.” 

“Wh- I'm older than you!” 

“Not in this life~”

V blinked. “Wait, when was your birthday? I didn't get you anything!” 

Lizzy grinned. “Couple of weeks ago, and yes you did. I got a nice hickey and everything~”

V groaned. “Stop that!” She reached for the next package, only to pause. “...wait, is that a broom?” 

“Show me,” Lizzy commanded, grabbing the package and checking it over. Her expression morphed into a scowl. “God damn it, Ursa, stop trying to bribe her!” 

Curious, V tore open the package. Inside was a beautiful black and silver broom, with custom decals in hazard warning patterns. She blinked. “...well, you have to admit, that's a good bribe.” 

“She says it's a ‘peace offering’,” Lizzy groused. “Dammit, and now I can't even be mad at her, that's a Nimbus 2001...”

V looked up sharply. “The rumoured upcoming Nimbus release? Which Broomstick says those won't be out until late August!”

“Girl's got style,” Lizzy sighed. “Fine, fine, that's a good enough peace offering.” 

“And Susan got me a miniature Quidditch pitch,” V commented. She looked at the broom again. “You know, I was planning on donating brooms to the Hogwarts Quidditch Teams. Yes, all of them. But I suspect that I'm going to have to spend more money than I planned.” 

“What were you planning?” Lizzy asked curiously. 

“Nimbus 1700s to Chasers and Seekers, Cleansweep Nines to Beaters and Keepers,” V replied distractedly. “I think I need to up the ante.” 

XD 

The latest Which Broomstick didn’t even have a picture of the Nimbus 2001, let alone a price tag, so V resolved to check again when she eventually got around to Diagon Alley. In the meantime, though, she had promised to visit roN, so that’s what she was doing. She had written ahead, so they knew to expect her, and she was packed so that she’d be spending the rest of the summer with the Weasleys, but she still wanted to make a good impression. Therefore, she used the Floo Network (that she’d practiced using at Lizzy’s) to arrive at exactly on the time she’d said she’d arrive, and arrived in a cloud of soot she hadn’t anticipated. “G-good morning, Mrs. Weasley,” she coughed.

“Oh dear,” the woman fussed, brushing soot away from her. “I know you said you’d arrive at around ten, but I didn’t expect you to arrive at exactly ten, teenagers aren’t usually this precise...”

V grinned weakly. “I wanted to make a good impression.”

“Oh that wasn’t at all necessary,” mrs. Weasley disagreed, “none of us are very formal here... RON! VIOLET IS HERE!”

V jumped a little at the sudden yell. “Oh, I’m not very fond of my first name... could you just call me V?”

“Oh, of course, V dear,” mrs. Weasley adjusted in a single breath, even as footsteps thundered on the staircase and roN slid across the corner, grinning.

“V!” he exclaimed happily, pulling the girl into a hug that V simply melted into. “It’s so great to see you!”

“You too,” V smiled. “Have you grown?”

“A little,” roN admitted, “but I think my growth spurt is still ahead. I can’t wait! Then I can give you even bigger hugs!”

“I can’t wait either then,” V grinned. There was a noise behind her that sounded suspiciously like Mrs. Weasley cooing, but V ignored that. “I liked the book,” she told him. 

“I thought you might!” roN grinned. “I saved up for it!”

“I’ll be sure to get you something too,” V assured him. “I’m slowly getting into the habit of remembering birthdays exist.”

roN patted her on the head. “Well done! I’m proud of you.”

Privately, V was very glad that she was more of a cat than a dog, otherwise her tail would most likely be wagging very hard at that moment.

At that point, V became aware of mrs. Weasley staring at them with a complicated expression. The woman shook it away, however, and instead pointed at V’s jacket. “...Are your pockets moving, dear?”

V started. “Oh. Uh, yeah. Those are my emotional support snakes in here.” ~Come say hello,~ she hissed.

Mrs. Weasley blinked several times in a rapid fashion. “...You’re a Parselmouth?”

V shrugged. “Professor McGonagall says it might run in the Potter family on occasion or something like that.”

“That’s so cool, ” someone said.

V looked over. There was a redheaded girl behind the corner, about eleven, looking at V with curiosity and awe. 

“Oh, that’s my little sister,” roN supplied. “V, that’s Ginny. Ginny, that’s my friend V.”

“Nice to meet you,” V said pleasantly. At that moment, one of the adders poked its head out of V’s jacket. 

~Hi,~ it hissed dutifully. ~I’m going back to sleep now.~

~Have good sleep,~ Ginny hissed. She giggled. “You have talking snakes,” she observed, looking at V. “That’s pretty coooooo... why are you all staring at me like that?”

“That’s because they talk like snakes always do,” V deadpanned. “You know, in Parseltongue.”

Ginny just blinked at them all. “...In what now?”

Chapter Text

“You know,” V deadpanned, looking at the somewhat panicked hustle and bustle in the Burrow following Ginny’s recent revelation, “I have a suspicion that just maybe, things that every wix assumes are rare... aren’t rare at all, but the circumstances they happen in don’t come up in normal life, so people think it’s rare.”

Errol, Weasley Family's ancient owl, stared at her blearily. “Hooo?” it asked. 

V sighed. “Why am I asking you ?”

“Hoo,” the owl agreed and tucked its head back under its wing. 

Sighing once more, V shook her head to clear it. Then she inhaled. “OI!”

The semi-panicking Weasleys froze, some of them in odd positions. V rolled her eyes. “Is that really such a big deal,” she snarked, “or are Parselmouths just that much less rare than you think? I mean, how often does a wix run into a snake?” 

The Weasleys all looked at one another. “I think yours are the first ones I saw outside of a picture book,” roN volunteered. 

The oldest brother scratched his chin. “Didn't Charlie once say that he thought he understood a Runespoor in his Care of Magical Creatures class?” 

Mrs. Weasley just looked slightly poleaxed. “Huh,” she said. “I should write to him.” 

V just rolled her eyes. 

XD 

Other than the revelations to the poor Weasleys, V had a good time at the Burrow. She did sleep in Ginny's room, but that was okay too - unlike the Twins, Ginny was cool, and apparently, she liked flying too. Turned out, as the young girl told V in confidence, she liked to break into the broom shed at night and take her brothers’ brooms for a spin.

The only hiccup was when V introduced her adders to Ginny's rat, a fat, gray lump of an animal named Scabbers. The rat heard the hissing, opened one eye, and immediately fled into its cage, locking it behind him. Smart move, if V was being honest. 

V also went flying, with her new broom and the boys, to their awe and faint jealousy. “It’s apparently a bribe,” V told them. “That’s okay, though, I’m planning on doing my own bribe game. Just be appropriately surprised when we get to Hogwarts.”

That got her some raised eyebrows, but V refused to elaborate.

She liked the broom, to be honest. It served her perfectly well in her chosen field - Chaser - but Seeking was good as a backup. She did do noticeably worse in the other two positions, however. According to roN, it was only partially inexperience - the other part was the racing broom’s relative inflexibility for sideways movement that Keepers and Beaters relied on. The twins agreed that it would perform well, but it wasn’t designed for those positions.

Privately, V agreed, having browsed Which Broomstick on numerous times. She was planning on donating Cleansweep Tens, the latest model on the market, for the Hogwarts teams, but she was also planning on getting roN and J custom Nimbus 2001s for Christmas. Ones like hers, that was.

XD

On the second week of August, the book lists arrived. Among the textbooks were a set of seven storybooks in place of the DADA textbook by someone named Gilderoy Lockhart. V stared at it in slight consternation. “I’m sitting with Liz again this year,” she declared.

“Just because someone assigned Lockhart books?” roN asked, already familiar with V’s tendencies. “Have you read any?”

“Brought Voyages with Vampires last year with a bunch of other vampire books,” V replied distractedly as she stared daggers at the book list. “Any so-called ‘teacher’ unhinged enough to assign these as ‘textbooks’ deserves to be mocked at.”

“And what’s wrong with Lockhart?” Mrs. Weasley asked sharply.

V looked up at her, deadpan. “You’ve read the books, haven’t you?”

The woman turned a little pink. “Well, yes, but...”

“They belong on the romance shelf, not a classroom,” V retorted. “If Professor McGonagall saw anyone reading them in her class, she’d have the perpetrators in detention faster than you can say ‘the fair maiden’s bosom heaved’.”

Mrs. Weasley paused. “...You may have a point, dear, but...” She looked at Ginny’s book list, and frowned. “...are all seven for each year?”

V blinked. “...what?” She looked over at Ginny’s list, then the twins’ (ignoring their yelp) and finally Percy’s, before shaking her head in befuddlement. “Okay, so someone wants to scam the students, apparently?”

“Whoever the new teacher is, surely they are still a teacher...?” Mrs. Weasley muttered. “Stilll... five sets of seven, and they aren’t cheap...”

“We’ll all share?” roN questioned, looking hesitant. 

“I can write someone who can take a look at it?” V suggested. 

roN gave her a side-eye. “Tonks isn’t that good.”

“I meant professor McGonagall,” V clarified. “She’s always looking out for everyone.”

Mrs. Weasley made placating gestures, even though she was wincing. “There’s no need for that, dears... we’ll manage. Somehow. We’ll go to Diagon Alley on Saturday, the weather should be nice...”

V raised an eyebrow, making a note to surreptitiously slip a few galleons into her purse later.


XD

On Saturday, they Flooed to the Leaky Cauldron (V went semi-last, so she could go over her pronunciation) and met the Grangers. As Mr. Weasley (a slightly balding, thin man whom V rather liked, if she was honest) introduced himself to Dr. Granger, V approached J. “Sorry for being weird or whatever,” she muttered. 

“Sorry for blowing up at you,” J replied. “Did you find an, ah, alternative source?” 

V nodded. “Yeah, neck is perfectly acceptable. I have healing saliva, too, so there won't be too much bleeding either.” 

J rolled her eyes, flicking V on the nose. “See, what'd I tell you? You'd have to-” 

She stopped mid-sentence. 

V poked her. “Oi. J. You okay?” 

J shook herself out of it. “...Sorry. I need more sleep, I thought I saw Tessa for a moment...” 

“...Well,” V began, before getting shushed. 

“Do you honestly think any humans we’d know made it through?” J retorted. “No, this is a sign that I need a better night's sleep.” 

V rolled her eyes. “Speaking of, did you see the booklist?” 

J made a face. “Yes, I saw. Whoever the teacher is has gone cuckoo - they aren't even good books!” 

V smirked. “Perfectly acceptable as a trashy romance novel to kill time with, in my opinion.” 

Now it was J's turn to roll her eyes. “Maybe to you. I, personally, am entirely too lesbian for this.”

“Mood,” Lizzy agreed, appearing out of nowhere and slinging her arm around J's shoulders. “Hey, can you tell me why V fled your place? She's too embarrassed to tell me.” 

J wiggled out of the other girl's grip, making a face. “Nuh-uh. No way am I telling you. You'll just use it for gossip anyway.”

Lizzy put a hand on her heart, acting affronted (and entirely dramatic). “Would I do that? Gossip away some perfectly good blackmail?” 

...that was just about V's limit, and she snuck away from her various friends, with a singular mission in mind. 

...actually, make that two missions. Three? Maybe three. 

XD

Well, mission one of sneaking into her vault and grabbing some extra galleons plus a checkbook was a resounding success. She'd hissed at Ginny to cover for her, but it seemed that the other girl was still just one person - there were Weasleys combing the Alley. 

“Right,” she muttered, ducking into Quality Quidditch Supplies and flagging down the owner. “Hello there,” she began, gathering all the manipulation skills she knew. “I’m Violet Potter, you may have heard of me.”

The man blinked down at her, eyes flicking to V’s forehead that she’d ‘forgotten’ to cover up. “...Why, yes! Of course! What can I do for you, miss Potter?”

“Are you aware of the uneven qualities of broom for the Hogwarts Quidditch teams...?” V carefully began her pitch.

Fifteen minutes later, after V and the shopkeeper had hammered out an ‘anonymous’ donation to Hogwarts, consisting of sixteen Nimbus 2001s and twelve Cleansweep Tens (because the shop owner, too, agreed with V’s assessment that not every racing broom was good for every position) and V was ‘just doing some broom care browsing’, a Weasley Twin finally poked his head into the shop. “SHE’S JUST LOOKING AT BROOMS!” he yelled out and vanished.

V smirked at the shopkeep’s raised eyebrow. She didn’t say anything, simply put her finger to her lips and winked. The man got the message.

XD

Mrs. Weasley did give her a scolding when she caught up to V - “you didn’t say anything, I feared the worst!” and V was contrite right back - “I’m used to being independent, I’m sorry” but all in all, the Weasleys looked relieved. Aside from Ginny, who looked a bit cross, but V slid three galleons in her pocket with instructions to slip two into her mum’s purse and all was forgiven. Privately, V thought that she was getting good at the bribe thing.

At any rate, while V had been ‘missing’, Ginny had apparently swindled her mum into getting her her robes, so the family was more or less done - only the expensive books left to get. 

So, the gaggle of children and parents (the Weasleys, the Grangers, V and Lizzy) moved on to Flourish and Blott’s - where, apparently, a book-signing was taking place. 

Gilderoy Lockhart himself, in fact. Looking at Mrs. Weasley's expression, V immediately deduced that the Saturday shopping trip was not a coincidence. 

Then again, looking at the man in question... well. V didn't deny that the man was attractive, but his smile was just a little too practiced to appeal to V. Clearly, she'd gotten spoiled on roN's genuine smiles. 

“Pretty dreamy, isn't he?” Ursa Malfoy asked, sidling up to V. “Absolutely wouldn't mind having that eye-candy around all the time, huh?” 

“Oh, definitely,” roN agreed, prompting an odd look from Ursa and a narrowed look from V. “He should smile more, though.” 

“And what's that supposed to mean?” came from five mouths simultaneously, followed by a pause as V, J, Lizzy, Ginny, and Ursa stared at each other. 

roN shrugged. “Some upper-years say that sometimes. And, you know, look at him. He tries too hard. If he smiled more naturally, he'd be even prettier.” 

Malfoy narrowed her eyes at him. “At risk of being eviscerated by Potter... Weasley. Please, for the love of Salazar Slytherin, never say anything like that to a girl.”

“No, I agree,” V deadpanned. “Never say anything like that to anyone ever again, and give me the names of the upper-years who taught that to you.”

Ginny sighed and smacked him upside the head. “You were accidentally being condescending again.”

roN paused, rubbing at his neck and thinking very hard, before his expression morphed into horror. “Oh no,” he whispered. “Did I become a scumbag?” 

V snorted to herself. “Nah, you're fine,” she snickered. “You're still twelve, I shouldn't expect 100% maturity from you.”

Something undecipherable flashed through Ron's eyes, but it was gone so quickly that V wasn't sure if she saw correctly. “Oh, okay. I'm still sorry.” 

At that point, a man carrying a camera shoved him aside. “Move it! These are for the Daily Prophet, you know.”

V’s hackles rose. “Working for a newspaper is no excuse for being a rude jerkface,” she hissed at him.

Several things happened after that. The photographer sneered at her, before his eyes widened in recognition. Lockhart looked up from his latest signature. And V remembered that she’d forgotten to brush her hair back over her scar.

“Surely, this cannot be Violet Potter?” Lockhart asked, loudly enough to be heard by the whole shop, and suddenly there was a clear path between her and the man.

Alarmed, V looked over to her friends (and acquaintances). Lizzy mouthed ‘oh get it over with’. Or ‘oh just kill him’. Seeing no help from anyone else, V walked up to Lockhart, raising an eyebrow. “Surely,” she deadpanned, “this couldn’t be a bookstore? Where people go looking for books?”

Lockhart let our a loud guffaw that V immediately pegged as fake. “With a wit as sharp as that, dear girl, it’s a wonder you aren’t in Ravenclaw! Come, come, we’ll have a photo for the Daily Prophet - one with me, you’ll be envied by many, no doubt!”

V opened her mouth to tell him to fuck off, but reconsidered in a flash of inspiration. She smiled. “Certainly!”

She was reasonably certain she heard Lizzy’s voice say “oh god, he’s done for, ” but didn’t react even as she stood next to Lockhart with a grin that wouldn’t look out of place on her old self. He was already taking a breath, no doubt about to launch into some spiel or another, before V cut in, already adopting a concerned expression. “How long have you been in here, Mr. Lockhart?”

“Well- what?” 

The man cut himself off, turning to look at her. “Whatever do you mean, dear Violet?”

V smiled pleasantly. “I meant in this room, stuffy and normally just full of books, now also full of people. (And for future reference, please, just refer to me as V.) Have you been getting enough air?”

Lockhart blinked at her. “...Air? Now that you mention it, I am getting... a little... dizzy...”

The man collapsed, V adopting an expression of shock with minor panic. “Oh no, he fainted! Someone get him some fresh air, quickly!”

And as people who looked to be in charge swarmed forwards, V melted back into the crowd, quite certain that nobody had gotten a good look at her belt moving on its own.

XD

“That was, and pardon my French - no offence Ursa - fucking epic, ” Lizzy whispered to her, ignoring Ursa’s muttered ‘some taken’ with ease. “I kinda thought you were about to murder him with how you were smiling, though...”

“I thought about it,” V whispered back, “and then decided not to traumatise Mrs. Weasley too much.”

“Why do you even like her so much,” Ursa Malfoy muttered, pouting.

V smiled. “She gave me my first ever present. No strings attached, no expectations of repayment. Just a woman who saw that her son’s friend was lonely, and knitted her a sweater. Herself, and out of love. That’s why I like her. Because she’s full of love, enough for her husband and all of her children, and enough left over for any other children who might need it.”

She looked over into the crowd, where Mrs. Weasley had somehow taken charge and was directing the people. “It’s nice to be loved.”

Ursa deflated. “...Fine. I can’t beat love.”

Lizzy rolled her eyes. “Not everything is a competition, Ursa.”

XD

Once the hullabaloo died down, they were found by Mr. Weasley. “How are we doing, Weasleys?” he asked jovially. “Found everything all right?”

“Found trouble, for the most part,” Percy muttered. Mr. Weasley laughed and ruffled his hair. 

“That happens! What’s important is not staying in trouble...” he trailed off, having spotted Ursa. “...Aren’t you Michel’s daughter?”

“Indeed,” a voice said behind them, one that sounded suspiciously like Michel Malfoy himself. “Arthur, darling. It’s been far too long.”

Mr. Weasley closed his eyes for a moment, before opening them again and turning around. “Michel. As cocky as ever, I see. But I hear you got raided recently. Something to hide, perhaps?”

The elder Malfoy smirked in a manner that had V immediately looking between him and Mr. Weasley in bewilderment. Ursa leaned in. “...I’m starting to see why your Weasel mentioned UST,” she murmured.

“Don’t call him that,” V murmured back, “and shush, I wanna see this.”

As she was saying that, Michel Malfoy leaned in very close to Mr. Weasley and whispered something that left the other man’s ears red - in anger, embarrassment, or something else, V wasn’t sure. “I noticed,” the man purred. “What a shame you weren’t there to spearhead it... you might have even found something...”

Involuntarily, V’s gaze found Mrs. Weasley in the crowd. To her surprise, however, the woman was having an amiable chat with Mrs. Malfoy, the two occasionally shooting eyerolls at their husbands. That... huh.

J leaned in. “Bet you a sickle there’s something poly going on there,” she murmured.

“No bet,” V murmured back. In the foreground, Michel had grabbed a book from Ginny’s cauldron and was waving it at Mr. Weasley’s face, but that action had the redheaded man gently but firmly shut things down. “No,” V heard him say quietly. “I am free game. But if you touch my children, I will kill you, and Yeva will help me hide your body, understand?”

Mr. Malfoy very carefully put the book back. “...Of course, Arthur. I went too far, and I apologize.”

V leaned against J, pondering. “...think that’s a kink thing?”

J snorted. “They should invest in better safewords.”

Chapter Text

September First dawned in chaos.

V, who for the most part had been packed for a week and only needed to put away her pajamas and toothbrush, observed in bemusement as the Weasleys ran around in every direction like, well, a pack of startled weasels.

She took a sip from the Everfresh Thermos that Lizzy had left her at the end of the Diagon Alley excursion, and gazed at the cloudy sky. Didn’t look like rain, but didn’t really look like sun either. She resolved to unpack a jacket.

As it stood, the family had several false starts when piling into the car - the twins forgot their brooms, then Ron forgot a book, then Ginny had to go back for the diary - she’d have gone back for her rat, too, if V hadn’t thought to grab it. Her own adders slept comfortably in the pockets of her birthday jacket, so she was fine on that front. 

All in all, it was a very frazzled family (and a bemused V) that arrived to King’s cross in a state of perpetual hurry and was bundled onto the train with minutes to spare. A good thing, too - if something else had gone wrong, V was reasonably certain mrs. Weasley would actually cry, and she really didn’t want to see that. The elder Weasleys were, however, waving at the children and shouting encouragements like ‘Don’t forget to write!’ and ‘Make sure you all eat properly!’ and ‘Try to behave, boys!’. 

Having waved for long enough that her wrist started to hurt a little, V proceeded to climb into a roN hug and stay there, even as Ginny rolled her eyes and headed elsewhere, the twins fled to parts unknown, and Percy headed off to the Prefect car. She didn’t even move when the door was pulled open and J collapsed onto the seat across from her. 

“Saw her again,” the other girl breathed. “On the platform. Just for a second and then gone. I’m losing my mind over here.”

V grinned a little from her comfy position. “Maybe she’s an HR kid in this life. I know how hard you went ‘I Do Not See’ at HR last time.”

J flipped her the bird. “Shut your corporate-damned mouth.”

V rolled her eyes. “Fine, but I reserve the right to say ‘I told you so’.”

XD

As the train neared Scotland, the cloud cover got drearier and the weather wetter. The trio shared roN’s corned beef sandwiches and chatted over nothing in particular. 

Well, until Lizzy and Ursa slid their compartment door open. “We’re sitting here for the time being,” Ursa declared. “Greengrass is being insufferable. ”

“She’s pouty because nobody was paying attention to her,” Lizzy ‘helpfully’ translated.

“Yeah, sure, sit away,” was V's somewhat sleepy contribution. “How was the two weeks since the Alley?” 

Ursa suddenly looked a little embarrassed. “I'd like to get this out of the way and say sorry in advance about Papa. He loves me very much, but he's... um. He's a little bit much, you know?” 

“...Not really?” V questioned. “What'd he do?” 

Ursa cringed. “Just, uh, don't be too mad at him, that's all. I think we'll all find out during the announcements anyway.” 

V hummed. “We'll be finding out many things during announcements, I suspect.” 

Ursa eyed her oddly, but didn't reply. 

XD 

As the train pulled into Hogsmeade Station, the cloud cover had decided to open into a light shower. V, being the cat that she was, didn't like it one bit. “At least it's not pouring,” she groused, marching past Hagrid calling for first-years and towards the Thestral-pulled carriages. “I hate rain.” 

“How is it that you're even more adorable when grumpy?” Lizzy asked. V could hear the grin in the other girl's voice. 

“Oh, why don't you bite me,” she retorted, wrenching open the nearest carriage door and climbing in. 

“Isn't that your job?” J shot back from right behind them. 

V was quiet for a moment. “...Somehow, it's weird to go through the year without Uzi there to be annoying.” 

“She wrote me a letter in the summer and told me to always check the corners with a mirror,” J deadpanned. “I think she'll find a way to be cryptic even without being present.” 

“She told me to ‘never forget about my talents’, whatever that means,” V sighed. “Either of you three get any weird letters?” 

Ursa shook her head. “My house elf screens my mail for weird letters from extended family members. If I did, he caught them.”

“I do hope you're being decent to your elves,” V said idly. 

J looked between the two of them. “...What's a house elf?” 

“A magical WD as far as my houseguest is concerned,” V replied, gesturing to her scar meaningfully. 

“...a magical servant race,” Ursa clarified, shooting V a strange look. “They cook, clean, take care of household matters, you can dictate letters to them... my elf, Dobby, for instance, has beautiful cursive handwriting.”

“I see,” J drawled. “And you treat them well? Leave? Sick days - do they get sick? Pension? Payment?” 

V stared at J for a long moment. “...J, are you an union kid in this life or something?” 

J rolled her eyes. “No, dimwit, I'm black.”

Ursa stared at them. “First, uh, yes I treat them well, Papa's orders, first and a half, they don't need any of those, second, what's an Union, third, what does skin color have to do with anything?”

J stared at the girl incredulously. “What do you mean what does skin colour have to do with anything?” 

Lizzy piped up. “You do remember that the Wix discriminate based on blood status, not skin colour? Completely different arbitrary mechanic.”

Ursa narrowed her eyes at them. “It's not arbitrary... wait. No matter what I say here, I'll just end up looking like a fool at best, aren't I?”

V grinned. “Might do.” 

XD 

As the students made their way to their tables in anticipation of the Feast, V, J, and roN were cornered by Cedric Diggory as soon as they sat down, the older student slipping into a seat right across from them. “Hey,” he breathed. “Look, I made Captain this year, but I've seen you three fly - please, please tell me you're going to try out for the team, I beg you, all our current Chasers are focusing on their NEWTs...”

V patted him on the shoulder. “Don't worry. I, for one, am definitely going to try out.”

“Sure!” was roN's admittedly rather predictable contribution. “I like Quidditch, and I love doing anything!” 

The two of them turned to look at J, who rolled her eyes. “What, did you think I was going to leave you two to your own devices? Sure, I'll come to the tryouts, but I don't have my own broom.”

V grinned. “Don't worry. You can use a school broom to try out, and after that, it won't be a problem.” 

At that remark, three sets of eyes turned to V in suspicion. 

“...what does that mean?” Diggory asked. 

V smiled, putting a finger on her lips. “Wait and see.” 

Diggory looked like he wanted to say more, but at that point, the side door opened. The Great Hall quieted as Professor McGonagall led a gaggle of firsties into the hall, to wait for their Sorting at the head table. 

Somewhat curious, V looked the firsties over, trying to spot both Ginny as well as potential new Hufflepuffs. 

She spotted Ginny next to a pale, white-haired girl, caught her eye, and winked. Ginny grinned back. 

Sliding her gaze across the firsties once more, V suddenly froze at the sight of a familiar bow. Cyn, here again? She looked closer. No, not Cyn, the girl had dark hair and completely... different... 

Oh. 

V stared, transfixed, as she suddenly recalled J's comments about having seen Tessa out of the corner of her eye. But surely, that was a coincidence, right? 

V kept the firstie in sight even as McGonagall started calling out names. C, D... 

“Elliott, Teresa!” 

The girl V had been keeping an eye on ran to the Hat. V could almost swear she could audibly hear J snap to attention. 

Teresa Elliott sat down on the stool, the Hat on her head. The brim opened... 

“SLYTHERIN!” 

Immediately, V made eye contact with Lizzy on the Slytherin table. ‘Protect her,’ V mouthed, ‘or else.’

She received a subtle thumbs-up in return, even as Lizzy cleared a space next to her to Teresa. 

Faintly smirking at the job well done, V finally turned to J, whose jaw had been sitting on the table for probably the whole time, and grinned faintly. “Told you so.”

Chapter Text

V observed the rest of the Sorting, resolutely ignoring the faint ‘Tessatessatessa’ from J-wards. Ginny’s friend “Lovegood, Luna!” went to Ravenclaw; Ginny herself to Gryffindor. V clapped for her friend, of course, along with the rest of Gryffindor - she got some odd looks, but she was already used to ignoring that.

Ginny was the last one to be sorted, too, so the headmaster stood up. “Welcome!” he called. “Welcome to another year at Hogwarts! I just have a few words for you, before the feast begins - and these words are: Let’s eat!” He sat, looking pleased, even as professor McGonagall rolled her eyes next to him.

V let out a breath as she absentmindedly started piling food onto her plate - to her delight and faint suspicion, she found quite a few fairly iron-rich foods in her vicinity. Perhaps someone in the kitchens was aware of her newfound taste of blood?

...J was still muttering next to her. V rolled her eyes and elbowed the other girl. “Eat something,” she deadpanned. “You can obsess later.”

J whipped back towards V, looking mildly betrayed. “But... Tessa!”

“Is she important?” roN asked innocently.

“Important?” J questioned. “Everyone is important. I’ve yet to meet someone who wasn’t- ouch!”

V withdrew her elbow. “While I’m glad for your character growth, stop quoting old Doctor Who episodes, you’re only embarrassing yourself.” She turned to roN. “As for Tessa, she’s just... someone I knew, once upon a time. You and her have a rather significant fact in common, in that regard.”

roN looked confused for several moments, before his expression cleared. “Oh! Like that! Yeah, that makes sense.” He tilted his head a little like a puppy who was thinking very hard. “...hey, quick question, do Muggles have old pureblood families?”

“Muggles are by definition the opposite of Purebloods,” one of the Hufflepuff boys, Smith or something, said with a sneer. “Did you hit your head or something, Weasel?”

“Zach, don’t be an ass,” another Hufflepuff replied reproachfully. “Muggles have aristocracy just like wix do, you know. Why do you ask, Weasley?”

“Oh, that’s easy,” roN replied. He nodded towards the Slytherin table. “Elliott over there is acting like an old pureblood, but I don’t recognise the name.”

“Oh, there’s plenty of peerage in the Muggle world,” the other Hufflepuff replied. “Oh, but where’s my manners, I’m Justin Finch-Fletchley. At any rate...” He looked over to the Slytherin table, eyes narrowed. “...the pronounciation is different, but maybe professor McGonagall just said it weird? But she sure does look like an Eliot of the St Germans Earldom. Didn’t realize one of them was a wix, but then again, it’s not very well advertised, is it...?”

“Peerage, huh,” V drawled. She eyed J. “I suspect someone here doesn’t even care about titles, which is... deeply ironic, but here we are.”

J looked back at V. “What was that? I wasn’t listening.”

“Teresa Eliot is suspected to be peerage,” V deadpanned. She watched as J went on a face journey, her old corporate ambitions in fierce competition with the lesbian instincts, and snickered. “Down, girl,” she chortled. “You’ll have plenty of time to get to know her later.”

She took a bite of her steak as a punctuation. Rare and delicious.

XD

As the Feast died down, with students full of food, pudding, and everything in between, Headmaster Dumbledore rose once again. “As I said before, welcome to Hogwarts! And our older students, welcome back! As always, we have a few announcements before I let you off into your beds. Firstly, give a warm welcome to our new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, professor Gilderoy Lockhart!”

There was a roaring applause from most of the older students (mainly female ones), but V just let out a groan. “ Definitely sitting with Liz now,” she muttered. 

“Additionally,” professor Dumbledore continued, “I am glad to say that the restrictions on the third-floor corridor have been lifted and it’s once again accessible to students. The Forbidden Forest, on the other hand, is still forbidden - hence the name. I do hope students will remember to stay out of the Forest this year.” He gave a meaningful glance at the Gryffindor table.

“Are your brothers trying to live there or something?” V muttered to roN. The boy shrugged.

“Quidditch tryouts will take place on Saturdays of the second week,” Dumbledore went on. “For further information, inquire with Oliver Wood of Gryffindor, Marcus Flint of Slytherin, Roger Davies of Ravenclaw and Cedric Diggory of Hufflepuff.” The man then smiled. “And finally, some good news regarding Quidditch at Hogwarts.”

V perked up. “Pay attention to this one,” she whispered to her suspicious housemates.

“For the first time in a very long time,” the Headmaster declared, “and thanks to a generous donation by a party that wishes to remain anonymous, the Hogwarts Quidditch Teams have received their own brooms for the team’s use! The Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff teams have a complement of Nimbus 2001s and Cleansweep 10s for the teams’ internal use - with a few spares. Additionally, the Slytherin team has received a donation of seven Nimbus 2001s from a generous alumni.”

There was a pause as various Quidditch players looked at each other in amazement, before the Hall erupted into massive cheering.

Across the hall, V caught Ursa Malfoy’s bewildered glance and gave the girl a wink. It seemed that Michel Malfoy had gifted brooms to the Slytherins - that was probably what Ursa had wanted to apologize for. Looks like V’s donation came through just in time, then.

Diggory leaned in deliver an incredulous to whisper at V. “ You did this, didn’t you?”

“It’s not a bribe,” V whispered back. “Merely an... equalizer. ”

Diggory exhaled. “...Good job. You’re still doing the tryouts.”

“Fair enough,” V agreed.

XD

Finally, in her dorm, V was ready to turn in. However, before she could do anything, she was cornered by J.

“We need to protect Tessa,” the other girl stated. “Immediately, if we must.”

V sighed. “Look, I told Lizzy to take care of it. It’s late, J, can’t this wait? ”

“She’s a muggleborn in Slytherin, ” J shot back. “More to the point, she’s the first muggleborn in Slytherin in fifty years - the last one was someone named Tom Riddle, and that one apparently survived on sheer ruthlessness. Tessa isn’t ruthless! She’s just human!”

V groaned. “J, right now, we’re human. Relax, would you? Liz and her godfather have already figured that out, and they’ll take care of it.”

“That girl coasts by on waves of apathy cast off by professor Teach,” J hissed. “At least check on her or something, she clearly doesn’t remember, they could kill her over there- mmph? ”

V had shoved the nearest object, which turned out to literally be a sock, into J’s mouth. “Chill. The fuck. Out. It’s Tessa , J, no matter what life she’s in. Slytherin won’t do anything to her.”

J, evidently not listening, grabbed V by the shoulders. “I. Am. Not. Losing. Her. Again. Got it?”

V let out a long, annoyed groan. “ Fine. I’ll go put the fear of Solver into Slytherin. But I reserve another right to say ‘I told you so’ when this inevitably goes wrong.”

She pulled her Invisibility Cloak out from under her bag and threw it on, grumbling the entire time. “You are so owing me blood for this.” She pulled up a [null] teleport and vanished.

XD

V reappeared in front of the Slytherin common room, already sighing. “Fine,” she groused to herself. “In and out, check on Tessa, job done.” ~Open.~

The wall lifted away, leaving concerned Slytherins staring at the opening that seemed to have no one behind it. Well, concerned Slytherins, and Lizzy, who just groaned. “Oh no, ” the girl whined. “Just go away, I have everything under control here...”

“Is that the Bloody Baron?” the firstie known as Tessa to V and as Teresa to everyone else, asked from next to Lizzy. 

“The Bloody Baron doesn’t use the door,” Lizzy shot back. “No, this is something far worse. ”

“And what would you know, Parkinson?” an upper-year sneered, twirling his wand. “Just give us the mudblood and it’ll all be over soon.”

“Oh, goodie, ” V deadpanned, shrugging off her invisibility cloak - to the yelps of several upper-years and an impressed whistle from several others. “J was right to be worried. Liz, remind me to never tell her that.”

“ You’re an enemy too, Potter,” the same upper-year sneered, pointing his wand at V. “What are you going to do? Puff at me?”

V slowly felt her lips curl into a fanged grin as she swiped her wandless Lumos across her glasses, the familiar X settling in place. Her belt unraveled into her tail, and a flick of her wrists attached the claws to her fingers. “Nobody has ever heard the Hufflepuff war cry and survived,” she quoted with a malicious grin. “Also, I dare you to repeat the M slur. You won’t like what’ll happen to you.”

The upper-year scowled, snapping out a spell of some kind. V didn’t pay attention to what it was, she simply reached out and...

[trl] [rot] [edit]

sent it right back at him, unstable and zagging all over the place, clipping the guy on his wand arm.

...Which then proceeded to fall limp, wand clattering from nerveless fingers as the bigot’s face contorted with horror. “W-what was that? What did you do? What are you?!”

V smiled. “I’m V. And that’s what happens when you’re a bigot around here.”

“Y-you can’t be everywhere at once!” the upper-year shouted, but it was clear that he was on the backfoot. 

V grinned. “Me alone? No, not really. But I’m not alone.” ~I need one of you to watch this room for me,~ she hissed, enjoying the thrill that came with an entire roomful of students paling as one of her adders poked its head out of her sleeve...

...and was then followed by a complete draining of any colour left when nearly all of the snake-shaped ornaments turned to face V. 

~We hear and obey,~ came from a hundred stone mouths, before the decor resumed its positions.

“So, anyway, the muggleborn is under my protection, and anyone who tries to argue...” V used a [trl] to lift the first troublemaker up, eyeing him in contemplation. “Say... What do you think would happen to a human if you rotated their skeleton while holding everything else in place?”

“...I think they got the message, V,” Lizzy finally managed, horrified. 

“Oh, good,” V breathed. She grinned and winked at her friend. “I was already afraid I’d need to start building another corpse spire.”

“Solver forbid,” Lizzy deadpanned.

Chapter Text

“What did you do?” 

Bones poked a finger at V's chest. “You left the dorms last night, came back late, and now the entire Slytherin contingent is terrified of you. You did something.” 

“What makes you think those things are related?” V asked as she sat down and gave Eliot a wave. The Slytherin firstie waved back and dug into her breakfast, even as the Slytherin upper-years scooted as far from the Hufflepuff table as possible. She paused. “...that's unrelated.”

From the look on Bones’ face, she didn't buy that for a second. Finally, the girl sighed. “...is this a reincarnation thing?” 

V looked one way, then the other, and leaned in, subtly gesturing at Teresa. “She's J's tragically dead ex-girlfriend. Potentially. We all knew her, J, N, and I, but we don't want her to remember until she's older. It was a... traumatic death.”

Bones’ eyes widened in understanding. “And she's a Muggleborn in Slytherin...” 

“Exactly,” V nodded. She let a small [trl] twirl above her hand for a moment, before extinguishing it. “So I may have... demonstrated my talents to the Slytherins.” 

Bones had an odd look on her face. “...Just those things, or your language skills too?” 

V blinked. “Both?” 

Bones groaned. “God damn it. People are going to think you're the Heir of Slytherin now or something...” 

“...Parseltongue isn't that rare, Susan.” 

Bones gave her an odd look. “...Of course it is, V. Voldemort is the only one within fifty years, until you came along.”

V smirked. “Was he? Or do most wix just never encounter a snake in their lives?”

At that, Bones looked hesitant. “...well, I didn’t meet one until I met yours, but that doesn’t mean I understood them.”

“I suspect,” V said quietly, “that people think it’s rare because the ones that Speak only very rarely encounter a snake. I mean, hell, this is Britain. All we have are grass snakes and adders, and the kids that run into one are ushered away by their parents, babysitters, or governesses before either side has a chance to Speak to one another. I wasn’t, but then again the humans I lived with didn’t care about my health whatsoever, so...”

Bones let out a deep sigh. “So which Weasley is it?”

V grinned. “Ginny. Possibly one of the older ones too. None of them had any idea until she told my adders to sleep well.”

Groaning, Bones took a bite of her toast. “Fine, maybe you aren’t an Heir of Slytherin.”

At that moment, Lizzy sat down next to V, grinning. “ Nice going, Heir of Slytherin.”

“Potters are from India,” V shot back. “I have as much in common with the man from fen as J does.”

Lizzy snorted. “Yeah, no. You walked into the Slytherin common room, and told every single snake ornament that it works for you now. Almost every single Slytherin is now convinced that you’re Voldemort’s granddaughter.”

Bones choked on her toast. “You did WHAT-”

XD

By the time Bones finished choking, roN and J had turned up, the latter with minor bags under her eyes, and professor Sprout was handing out the timetables. V looked at hers.

“...Astronomy on the first day? Again? ”

“Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence,” Lizzy commented, catching the timetable Malfoy threw her. “If it happens next year too, we’ll complain to Dumbledore.”

“Bold of you to assume he’s not doing it on purpose,” J snarked. “He seems to be the type.”

“At least we have a free period after breakfast,” V allowed. “And another one tomorrow.”

“They don’t want us dead right after Astronomy,” J guessed. 

V looked her timetable over. “Herbology still three times a week, I see. And DADA with the Slytherins again - Lizzy, we’re doing the same thing as last year, right?”

“You betcha,” the Slytherin commented. “We, of course, still have Potions with the Gryffindors.”

“How’s that going?” V asked curiously. “Granted, the only Gryff I know by name is Longbottom, but...”

“Longbottom’s hopeless at Potions,” Lizzy groaned. “Godfather finally gave up and put him with Greengrass and now they’re doing fine-ish, but any wandwork he’s terrible with.”

“He’s fantastic at Herbology, though,” V objected. “Potions and Herbology should go hand in hand, so what’s up with that?”

“Sometimes the obvious pair just doesn’t work as obvious,” J snarked. V gave her a suspicious look.

“...is that a dig at somebody?”

“Nope.”

“...If you say so.”

“He’s useless with a wand, so maybe he’s more Witch-leaning?” Lizzy suggested. 

“...that reminds me, he has a hand-me-down wand,” V remembered. “Ollivander did say that the wand chooses the wix.”

“...I have a hand-me-down wand, too,” roN pointed out. “And I’m doing fine. Ish.”

“...What is yours, anyway?” J asked curiously. “Unicorn hair, obviously, but what’s the wood?”

“Ash,” roN replied, taking it out and showing them. “Used to be Charlie’s... and what do you mean obviously unicorn hair?”

“V and J have phoenix and dragon heartstring, respectively,” Lizzy replied. “ Obviously you have the final of the Big Three.”

“...Oh,” roN replied. “Uh... thank you.”

“Ash and unicorn is very loyal to its original owner, though,” Bones pointed out. “You must be a very powerful wizard to compensate.” 

roN’s ears pinked. “...thank you.”

“Pretty sure Longbottom’s current wand is ash, too,” V mused. “What does that say about him, then?”

“Confidence also plays a factor,” J pointed out. “No offence to Longbottom, but he’s... not very confident.”

“So if we built it up, he’d be as powerful as roN?” V asked. “Sure. Let’s do it.”

“This’ll end well,” Bones muttered.

XD

The day passed normally, with both V and J taking the time to talk more with Longbottom during Herbology, but the boy seemed mostly confused. In the evening, however, there was a commotion at the Gryffindor table. It looked like Ginny was surrounded by excited first-years, her twin brothers, and several other students. V leaned over. 

“Now what’s going on there?” she muttered.

“That’s the Gryffindor team,” Diggory replied from across the table. “But whatever they’re doing, I have no idea.”

V hmmed. “The tryouts are still two weeks away, aren’t they?”

Diggory rolled his eyes. “One, the Gryffindor team has a mostly complete roster already. Two, the Gryffs have never been particularly schedule-oriented, three, Wood is a maniac...” He stared at the commotion, brow furrowed. “Firsties aren’t allowed their own brooms, though...”

V paused. “...the teams have their team-specific brooms now, though.”

Diggory just looked at her. “...Potter.”

“Yes, I know, I know,” V rolled her eyes. “That’s my fault.” She paused. “I did stay with them over the summer, she’s been flying with her brothers’ brooms for years... hey, roN?”

The boy looked over. “What is it, V? I wanna go see what’s going on with Ginny.”

V snorted. “That’s what I wanted to ask you. Go see what’s going on.”

roN grinned in delight. “Sure! Be right back!” He hurried off.

Diggory was frowning at V. “You should have been in Slytherin.”

V smirked, taking a sip of her pumpkin juice. “I have far too much loyalty towards roN.”

XD

“So?” V asked later, in the common room. “What’s up with Ginny?”

roN was glowing with excitement. “She had her first flying lesson today, and-” He cut himself off. “-no, I said I’d keep it a secret, sorry.”

“I had the theory that Gryffindor has a new Seeker,” V commented, even as roN squeaked. “I just wanted to know if my theory was correct.”

“Youngest in a century!” roN whispered excitedly. “But don’t tell anyone, it’s a secret until the official tryouts!”

“...roN, they’re Gryffindors, ” V deadpanned. “No offence towards any of them, but none of them have ever been a picture of subtlety. Bet you a knut they’ll ‘accidentally’ announce it to the whole school by tomorrow.”

“...Still!” roN argued. “I promised - please don’t tell...”

V smiled, ruffling his hair. “Don’t worry. I’ll wait until they tell.”

Chapter Text

September Third dawned typically British, V thought as she absentmindedly ate breakfast in the dreary Great Hall. Last night’s Astronomy had been tiring as usual, and she was looking forwards to a nice nap before Transfiguration. Unfortunately, her quiet morning was shattered when an owl carrying a red envelope winged its way into the hall.

The envelope landed in front of Ginny Weasley, who looked at it in a mixture of confusion and dread when V glanced over. And then, it exploded into noise.

~LITTLE SISTER! I’M SO PROUD OF YOU - SEEKER, AND YOUNGEST IN A CENTURY! I’D GIFT YOU YOUR OWN BROOM, BUT A NIMBUS 2001 IS OUT OF MY PRICE RANGE- REGARDLESS! I’M SO GLAD TO HEAR THAT YOU SPEAK TOO! MOM NEVER BELIEVED ME, BUT I CAN NOW SAY I TOLD YOU SO! OH, I’M SO HAPPY- ANYWAY, HUGS AND KISSES, YOUR BROTHER, CHARLIE!~

The entire excited rant was in Parseltongue. Curious, V looked around. Most students looked confused in the ‘what the hell was that ’ kind of way, but she could spot at least twenty different people who rolled their eyes in a ‘Weasleys’ kind of way, and several others, who whispered to their friends in a ‘but why would you send a yelling letter’ kind of way.

She glanced at the head table. Lockhart looked horrified, Flitwick curious. The headmaster was laughing quietly. Interestingly, Hagrid, Teach, and professor McGonagall were rolling their eyes fondly.

Snorting, V looked back to the Gryffindor table, giving Ginny an amused grin. The girl returned one, albeit a little weaker one.

J leaned in. “...what the hell was that about?”

“It would seem,” V whispered back, “that Charlie Weasley is excited about having another Parselmouth around. So, how many people did you count that understood him? I got about thirty counting the teachers.”

J grumbled. “Fine, fine, you were right, it’s not as rare as wix think it is.”

XD

V stared up at Professor McGonagall, consideringly, as she waited for the class to start. ~So,~ she began. ~Do you understand this, Professor?~

McGonagall glanced at her. “I teach my lessons in English, miss Potter, and you should stick to it.”

“...Yes, Professor,” V sighed. 

Well, that went nowhere, and V spent the rest of the lesson trying to transfigure beetles into buttons. 

XD 

And then, it was time for DADA - which began with the professor strutting in like a particularly fancy peacock. Dreamy sighs were heard all around. 

“Me,” Lockhart declared, holding up a book with his own smiling face on it. “Gilderoy Lockhart, member of Dark Forces Defense League, and five-time winner of the Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award- but I didn't get rid of the Bandon Banshee by smiling at her, haha!”

Most of the class laughed genuinely. V and Lizzy on the other hand, sitting in the back of the class, giggled unpleasantly. “She ran away because she didn't want to listen to him speak,” V whispered. Lizzy tittered. 

Lockhart frowned for a moment, before getting back on track. “Now, now. Let's see how well you all have read your textbooks, hm?” He passed down copies of a quiz. 

V looked down at the parchment and did a double take. “...what in the Solver of the Absolute Fuck?” 

“There's narcissism and then there's Lockhart,” Lizzy agreed. “Alright, let's see how wrong we can do this.” 

What is Gilderoy Lockhart's favourite colour? 

“Pink is too good for him,” Lizzy sneered. 

“Orange Pizzazz?” V suggested, writing it down. “He'd look horrendous in it.”

“Brilliant,” Lizzy muttered. 

What is Gilderoy Lockhart's secret ambition? 

“Well, he's a narcissist,” V muttered. “What does any narcissist want?” 

“To have intercourse named after him,” Lizzy snickered. 

What, in your opinion, is Gilderoy Lockhart's greatest achievement to date? 

“Conning thousands of Galleons out of the parents of Hogwarts students by making his biography mandatory for every single year,” V muttered viciously as she wrote that down. 

“Wait, it's the same set for each year?” Lizzy questioned incredulously. “Wow. What a scumbag.” 

How Many times has Gilderoy Lockhart won Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award? 

“He just said it, it's five,” Lizzy pointed out at V's ‘zero’. 

“I don't care, that smile isn't charming at all,” V whispered back. “Ron's is superior.” 

“You're biased.” 

“Oh, definitely.” 

Which is Gilderoy Lockhart's best side for photographs? 

“Inside.” 

“Vicious.” 

“But accurate.” 

Which product does Gilderoy Lockhart use to clean his teeth with to achieve his famous dazzling white smile?

“Bleach?” 

“Bleach.” 

What, in your opinion, is the bravest encounter Gilderoy Lockhart has ever had?

“Not peeing his pants near a Flobberworm,” Lizzy suggested. 

“Somehow managing to avoid being disemboweled by NEWT students,” V murmured. 

How many fans are in the Gilderoy Lockhart fan club?

“Too damn many.” 

“Agreed.” 

What does Gilderoy Lockhart absolutely never travel the world without? 

“His ego.” 

Which is the personal name which Gilderoy Lockhart has given to his ‘broomstick’?

V smirked. “This is an inappropriate question to give to 12-year-olds, and a copy will be sent to Professor McGonagall.”

“You're evil,” Lizzy whispered. 

When is Gilderoy Lockhart's birthday and what would his ideal gift be?

“He doesn't have a birthday. He crawled into existence from a spell accident.” 

Lizzy snorted. “Oh that's a good one.”

XD 

Both V and Lizzy could tell exactly when Lockhart got to grading their tests, because he stopped and stared for a long minute, before shaking his head and sliding the parchments away. “Some of you have very active imaginations,” he commented. “But it seems that hardly any of you noticed that my favourite colour is lilac. In fact, none of you had full marks - I had high hopes for miss Granger, but it seems she missed a question.” 

“I didn't miss it,” J shot back. “I deliberately left it unanswered.” 

Lockhart blinked. “...I see. Well, it's a perfectly harmless question...” 

“No it's not!” Lizzy called out. “We noticed the air quotes!” 

Lockhart blinked. “Air quotes?” He looked closer at the quizzes, and his face drained of colour. “Ah... full marks if you don't mention that little mistake to anyone?” 

“What do your Union roots tell you?” V yelled. “Narc or no narc?” 

J responded with an old DD hand signal. V snorted.

“...what’s that one mean?” Lizzy whispered curiously.

“‘Quiet, toasters nearby,’” V responded equally quietly. “Shows how much she thinks of him...”

“Toaster is a slur,” Lizzy deadpanned. She held that expression for a moment before bursting into giggles. “Nah, can’t keep a straight face for that one.”

“Now,” Lockhart began, “Disregarding... all that, it is my job to prepare you. For the foulest, most dangerous creatures that the Wixen World has in store...” He patted the cloth-covered cage behind him. It rattled. “But you are only second-years, so you all might start with *these.*” He whipped the cloth from the cage. 

Someone snorted. Inside the cage were perhaps a dozen small, bright blue winged humanoid things, wearing mischievous expressions. 

“That's right,” Lockhart said proudly. “Freshly caught Cornish Pixies.” 

From across the room, Malfoy snickered. “Is this really your idea of dangerous, Professor Lockhart?”

The man smiled. “Oh, you think so, miss Malfoy? Then let's see you handle them!” 

He opened the cage. 

At the back of the class, V grinned. 

XD 

“Well, that was highly enjoyable,” V commented as she walked out of the classroom, fingers stained with periwinkle blood. 

“Speak for yourself!” the rest of the class snapped, trudging out behind her, a mass of wrinkled or ripped robes and messy hair. 

“Your own fault for not being prepared~” V sing-songed. Oh, that had been fun. 

XD 

That evening, after dinner, found V knocking on Professor McGonagall's door. The woman raised an eyebrow. “Miss Potter? This is a surprise. Did you have a question about Transfiguration?” 

V shook her head. “No, Professor. I have a question for the Deputy Headmistress, about Professor Lockhart.” 

Deputy Headmistress McGonagall pursed her lips. “You better come in, then.” 

V entered, sitting by the professor's desk. “Deputy Headmistress... are you aware of what Lockhart did with his textbooks?” 

“He assigned seven of his books,” Professor McGonagall confirmed. “One for each year, or so I'm led to believe - and before you ask, no, I don't consider them appropriate material, but my hands are tied in this matter.” 

Ah. That's how he did it... “Are the booklist quills automatic like the admission quill?” V asked. 

Professor McGonagall narrowed her eyes in suspicion. “...Yes, they are. I would be too busy to be able to teach classes otherwise - miss Potter, what exactly is this about?” 

“Lockhart assigned all seven books to all seven years, Professor,” V said. 

Professor McGonagall stilled. “... Excuse me?” 

“All seven books to all seven years,” V confirmed. “The same seven books for all seven years, and they're expensive. The Weasleys had to buy thirty-five between them.” 

Professor McGonagall's lips were now white, and extremely thin. “I see. You may return to your common room, miss Potter, and ten points to Hufflepuff for bringing this to my attention.” 

V rose, nodded to the professor, and fled from the palpable waves of anger emanating from her. 

~You and I need to have a serious talk, Gilderoy,~ V heard faintly from behind her, but she didn't stop. 

Chapter Text

In Thursday morning's DADA class, Lockhart stood in front of the class, smiling. To V, however, the smile looked a little fragile. 

“Dear students,” he began, “It's come to my attention that there's been, ah, a slight misunderstanding. I had intended to donate my works as textbooks, but something got mixed up, haha! So if you would let your parents know, they can... owl my account manager and get refunds.” He looked almost physically pained to say that. 

Lizzy leaned onto V, smirking. “Well done, girl.” 

V simply grinned smugly. “His own fault for almost slipping that past McGonagall.” 

“...and he's still alive?” 

“Far as I can tell,” V whispered, “They're short on teachers. He's what we have because he's all there is.” 

“...let's wait until Halloween,” Lizzy suggested. “If he turns evil, just Quirrell him and we'll convince Uzi to teach us.” 

V bumped her fist. “You bet.” 

Lockhart, on the other hand, set out to pick students to act out scenarios from his books. If V was honest, he wasn't terrible at casting. Vincent Crabbe made for a surprisingly good troll. 

XD 

On Friday evening, Cedric Diggory called for attention in the Hufflepuff common room. 

“Attention to anyone interested in Quidditch!” 

J, V, and roN looked over, along with a number of other Hufflepuffs. 

“Hey Cedric!” someone called out. “You're not Wood, tryouts are next weekend!” 

“That may be so,” Diggory allowed, “but Gryffindor and Slytherin already have full complements, and I heard that Davies is planning on holding early tryouts too. So in the interest of fairness, tryouts are tomorrow after breakfast.” 

“Wood's already practicing, isn't he?” someone else guessed. 

Diggory rolled his eyes. “Yup.” 

XD 

So as it stood, on Saturday morning after breakfast, a small crowd of hopefuls gathered on the Quidditch pitch. 

“As you all may have heard,” Diggory began, “thanks to an anonymous donation, all the House Quidditch teams have brooms for internal use. As they are well-chosen for their respective roles, we'll be using them as an evaluation metric.” His eyes grew serious. “But if you're only here to play with the brooms, I must ask you to leave.” 

He looked around. Some people muttered angrily and stomped off. 

“Okay, good,” he murmured. V suspected that nobody was meant to hear that, but oh well. “Now. I'm letting people try out for every position, yes, even my own, and yes, even the people who already were on the team. Reserves, people! Now, who's trying out for Seeker?” 

What followed was about half an hour of Diggory using a clipboard and a stopwatch to measure and compare Seekers, including, true to his word, himself. “Right,” he muttered. “Harris, you're the Reserve Seeker.”

A third-year with messy black hair whooped. 

“Next, Beaters!” Diggory called out. That tryout was in two parts - first, he weeded out those who couldn't even hit the bludger, and then those who couldn't aim the bludger. Finally, he had three Puffs left - a sixth year girl named Walker, a fourth year boy named Williams, and finally, V's dormmate Leanne. 

“Alright,” Diggory muttered. “Beaters need cohesion with each other, so two of you are main players and one is the reserve - and in the name of fairness, since all of you were more or less equal, decide amongst yourselves which is which, alright?” 

“I'll be the reserve,” Williams volunteered. 

“Is that okay with the others?” Diggory immediately asked. Walker and Leanne shrugged. “Then you're the reserve! Now! Chasers, who's trying out for Chasers?” 

V looked around, curious. That was... Just her, J, and roN? 

Diggory, too, looked bemused. “...Just you three?” 

“Looks like,” V replied. “What shall we do, Captain?”

Diggory thought for a moment. “First, get on the brooms and show us how you fly. Then, we'll get you on the Quaffle, and if you do a good job, you can be the Keeper trial.”

V grinned, commanding her broom into her hand. Next to her, roN and J mounted the team brooms. The air felt charged with anticipation, for only a moment, before the three kicked off. 

As always, flying was freeing, but this time, the Team was right at her heels. They zoomed around the pitch, changing altitudes, speeds, and positions between them, working seamlessly and well-oiled. 

...for the most part. 

V was used to working with J and N, but N wasn't there right now. Instead, there was roN Weasley, who, while brilliant, didn't have decades-worth of extra teamwork experience with him. 

V and J didn't even have to look at each other on occasion, but roN always kept an eagle eye on the two of them. Once, he started to fumble a feint manouver, before looking closer and correcting. 

“Impressive!” Diggory finally called out. “Now do that with the Quaffle!” He threw the red ball into the air. 

J caught it first, passing it to V, who juggled it for a minute, before passing it to roN, who almost dropped it. “Sorry!” he called out. 

V slowed next to J. “I think we need to dial it back a little, J. roN can't keep up.” 

“Typical,” J muttered. “As soon as he gets good he gets wiped and we'll have to train him all over again.” 

V glared at the other girl. “Shut up. This is different, remember? And we can do it.” She caught roN's pass almost absentmindedly. “The real challenge is not showing off.” 

J sighed. “Oh fine.”

XD 

True to their word, V and J slowed down, making a silent promise to actually help roN catch up instead of what they'd done with N. As such, their teamwork was now much more cohesive, and Diggory started calling in the Keepers. But there was a problem. 

“Are you even trying to block?” 

“Neener neener you can't see me coming!” 

“Sorry! But that's another goal!” 

...they kept slipping past any Keeper prospects with an almost laughable ease. Finally, Williams, the reserve Beater, rolled his eyes and suggested that the Keeper prospects should just try blocking penalties. Diggory looked mystified. 

“But if our Keeper can only block penalties, how do they expect to block real Chasers like Potter, Granger, and Weasley, or the Gryffindor Chasers, or...” 

In the air, roN squee'd quietly. “Did you hear? He called me a real Chaser! Even though I mess up all the time...” 

“You don't mess up,” J deadpanned. “You just don't have the experience of hunting as a team that we do.” 

There was a long pause. Then roN opened his mouth. “Well...”

“No,” V cut him off. “You aren't allowed to.” 

roN deflated. “Okay...”

“No killing yourself until at least puberty,” J joked. V punched her in the face. 

“And no suicide jokes period,” she hissed. 

“Crystal,” J muttered, rubbing her jaw. 

XD 

Eventually, they got the lone Keeper who blocked a single incoming Quaffle from J and all five penalties. She was a fifth-year girl with short red hair and a permanently-bandaged nose, named Andrea Crawley. She was grinning maniacally as she shook hands with the rest of the new team. “This is going to be a fun two years,” she commented. “I can't wait to git gud enough to be a challenge for you three.” 

Nobody needed to ask which three she meant. 

“Fan tastic!” Diggory cried out, looking excited. “Right, what's everyone's schedules, so we can coordinate practices?” 

After a while, they hashed out Tuesday evenings and Saturday afternoons. “Perfect,” Diggory concluded. “I can't wait to see Oliver Wood's face when we next play against him.”

“What's the first match of the season?” V asked curiously. 

“That's always been Gryffindor/Slytherin on the first week of November,” Diggory replied. “We don't play until the end of November, against Ravenclaw, but I suggest you go watch the other teams play anyway. I know some of you didn't do that last year, but I advise you to do it anyway.” 

“Strategies, playstyles, upcoming tactics,” J listed out. “Well, I'm always up for corporate espionage.”

Diggory looked pained for some reason. “Please don't call it that.”

Chapter Text

After the tryouts were over, there was still some free time, so the new team got some practice in. Well, by “some practice” it more or less amounted to, in Williams’ words, “Okay, so we’re just being minor obstacles to the monsters, aren’t we?”

Eventually, Diggory called in a break. “Right, we have two options going forward. We could play defensively while Potter, Granger, and Weasley do all the work, or we could play like cornered badgers and use offense as the best defence.”

“We, um, need communication,” Leanne offered. “You know. Work as a team.”

J perked up. “Team-building exercises?!”

V groaned. “J, no. ”

“J, YES!”

XD

“...whoever made that one a foul is cruel, ” V complained to an unsympathetic Lizzy. “It’s always just... there, and so tantalizing...”

“Just because you’re an actual cat doesn’t mean snitchnip isn’t a foul,” the other girl pointed out. “Your own fault for being a Chaser.” She smirked. “Can’t wait to see you on the pitch, by the way.”

V paused. “...that statement sounds supportive but I can see that smirk. What’s going on?”

Lizzy leaned back, grinning. “Oh, nothing. Nothing at all.”

V squinted. Lizzy squinted back. Finally, V sighed. “So, is Malfoy on the team with you?”

Lizzy grinned. “We’re gonna knock you off your brooms and you’re going to hate it.”

“I’m sure,” V deadpanned.

XD

“Just talk to her, ” V hissed at J, who was hidden behind a veritable book fort in the library, peeking out from behind it - at Teresa Eliot, who was quietly studying at a different table.

“I can’t! ” J hissed back, desperately. “What would I even say? What did you say when you met Ron?”

“I said, ‘of course you can come in’,” V deadpanned. “Because he spoke up first. I think I said a hello too somewhere. I’m sure you can start with a hello.”

“I can’t do that! ” J hissed. “I- no wait what are you-”

“Don’t get us kicked out,” V deadpanned, dragging a now-silently protesting J behind her. “Hey little Slytherin.”

Teresa looked up from her book, eyes lighting up. “Hey cool Hufflepuff!”

“This one wanted to say hi,” V continued with great, albeit a little suppressed, amusement. “This is J.”

Teresa tilted her head. “The one you mentioned to your friend that was worried about me? I could have taken them, I suppose. You didn’t have to.”

V nudged at J to snap her out of... whatever she was occupied by.

J scrambled what looked to be her last braincell into action. “Hi!” she squeaked. “I like your... bow!”

Teresa blinked. “...Thanks?”

“It goes great with your... robes!” J bravely continued.

The firstie stared at her in stupefaction. She then glanced at V. “...Is she okay, or...?”

V snickered. “She’s fine, her braincells are just on a brief vacation. I think I’ll bring her in another day and maybe she’ll be able to string together a coherent sentence.”

Teresa giggled. “Sure, why not. Oh, hey!” She waved, and whisper-yelled: “Over here!”

Ginny Weasley appeared from in between the shelves, grinning, before registering the presence of V and J and scowling. “Hey! You have your own friends. This one’s mine!”

This one seemed to shake J out of her stupor as the older girl actually growled. “I’d like to see you- urk! ”

Her growl was cut off by V pulling at her collar, hard. “Aight, I’m done. I’ve said hi, that’s all I needed to do. Have fun, firsties. Don’t let the house boundaries stop ya.”

She dragged J out of the library. 

XD

Sunday evening found V skulking around the castle in her Invisibility Cloak, just taking a break from her people. Don’t get her wrong, she loved them, but sometimes, they were simply exhausting.

So she simply wandered, dodging Mr. Ladderman on his patrols, and several cats that might not have beem McGonagall, but she wasn’t taking chances.

Mostly, she was looking for the whispers.

One of her adders had said that they had heard whispers of someone in the night - a serpent, they guessed, and a hungry one. V was hoping to be in earsight when they whispered again, so she could offer help. She liked snakes, after all.

Instead, most whispers seemed to be from upper-years in broom cupboards, doing who-cares-what. V left most of those alone, although not even she could resist scaring a few pairs here or there. Weakness of mortals and all that. 

But then, at last, there were actual whispers of Parseltongue. But not snakes, no - humans. 

Specifically, students, indulging in their newfound language skills. V took a moment to listen in on a pair. 

~You sure it's safe? Curfew is in minutes.~

~Don't worry. I can be sneaky if I want to, and your house won't care.~

~Haha, yeah. Not since Potter showed up with her Heir declaration.~

~So it was actually one? I thought that was just a rumour!~

Oh. Huh. They were talking about V, weren't they? Voices were a little familiar... V leaned closer. 

~...walked in, made all the ornamenture obey her, and declared me under her protection. Of course it was a declaration, and it was cool!~

...wait a moment. 

~I... don't think she realises that,~ the other voice, which also sounded awfully familiar, replied. ~She stayed with my family this summer and I'm pretty sure that she's just Like That.~

Ginny , V realised. And the other one is Tessa? I did think she reacted to Charlie's Howler, but I shook it off... Huh. 

She tuned back into the conversation, just for nosiness. 

~That's just a Muggle superstition,~ Ginny was saying. ~I mean, yes, Taboo is an actual spell, You-Know-Who used it in the last war, but I don't think V is going to show up just because we say her name three times. Here, let me prove it to you.~

Oh now that she couldn't resist. V snuck closer, wiping the cross onto her glasses. 

~Violet Potter, Violet Potter, Violet Potter,~ Ginny chanted. ~See? No V.~

~But consider,~ V hissed, emerging from her cloak like a grinning phantom, ~Yes V.~

Both firsties screamed and clutched each other, leaving V roaring with laughter. “Sorry,” she finally managed. “I was just passing by when you gave me an opportunity I simply couldn't resist.” 

Ginny was breathing heavily, cheeks red. “Don't do that!” She scowled at her. “No wonder my brothers are afraid of you.” 

V shrugged. “They nearly got me and J killed, and apparently once tried to trick roN into an Unbreakable Wow. They deserve it.” 

Ginny stared with wide eyes. “You, killed? But you have all this gear, and skills, and mystical abilities and-” 

“Last Halloween I didn't have any of those,” V remarked. “Anyway. Sup, Eliot.” 

“Hello,” the other firstie waved. “You're pretty cool.” 

“Yup,” V agreed. “So how'd you two get acquainted?” 

“We sit together in Potions,” Teresa Eliot shrugged. “Got talking, you know how it goes.” 

“Sure do,” V agreed. She glanced at Ginny, who was still strangely flushed. Wait... 

V squinted. Ginny noticed and rapidly shook her head, only to still when Teresa looked over and fell into a sort of a happy little smile. 

V let out a snort. “Well, I'll leave you two alone, then.” She slid the Invisibility cloak back on, wiping off the X from her glasses. “See ya.” 

She waited until she was far enough away, out of earshot at least, and then burst out laughing. 

Oh, it was so obvious! Ginny also had a puppy crush on Teresa! She snickered more. “Oh, poor J,” she mocked, turning back towards the common room. No whispers this weekend, it seemed.

Chapter Text

The next several weeks went by. Lockhart didn’t bring any more creatures to class and kept having the students act out his lessons. The one he most frequently cast as himself was a Slytherin boy named Zabini, who seemed to be having a ball with the role. V was pretty sure he was subtly mocking the man, but Lockhart clearly hadn’t been a Slytherin.

At any rate, Zabini spent most of his lessons swashbuckling against various students playing various creatures. Well, except the one time Lockhart was incautious enough to assign V as a vampire. That was so terrible that it seemed the entire class had blanked the incident from their memories altogether, and Lockhart never assigned V to anything ever again.

• [absoluteSolver has saved original memory files for safekeeping.]

...Whatever that meant.

In Transfiguration, they were doing inanimate to animate transfiguration with invertebrates. V asked Professor McGonagall if they were pre-transfigured insects that they had to transfigure into something else, got two points for an insightful question, and was told that they were real insects.

...To be honest, V wasn’t being insightful, she just wanted a snack.

And then there was Quidditch practice.

XD

J had taken to teamwork with gusto, as the rest of the team soon began to regret. Privately, V thought that 20th century wixen weren’t built for 31st century corporate, but that wasn’t her problem. Mostly because watching all that happen was, in a word, hilarious.

“We should swap origin stories, so that we’re more comfortable with each others’ presence.”

“...what?”

“It’s for strengthening communication! Actually, we should enhance collaboration as well... V! Can you help me show them a human knot?”

One of the beaters balked. “What kind of a curse is that? ”

J rolled her eyes. “ Wix. It’s not a curse, it’s a team-building exercise... okay, we need to stand in a circle...”

“Is this a Dark Ritual?” Leanne asked.

V snickered. “Oh yes. The darkest, and most effective.”

Aside from subjecting their fellow Hufflepuffs to corporate nonsense, V and J were also training roN. Not necessarily in Chasing tactics, but more in situational awareness and body language cues.

If V was being honest, it was unlikely to get him to N-level in just a few months, but he tried so earnestly that it was hard to tell him no again. Didn’t stop J from almost ripping into him from time to time, which usually resulted in V ripping into J. A cycle of circularity, that.

Nonetheless, they were making good progress. V and J still slowed down for roN, but not as much and not as often. In Diggory’s words, “They don’t know what is gonna hit them.”

XD

Aside from classes, Quidditch practice, and Lockhart, V also had to deal with J and Ginny dancing around Teresa. 

She didn’t exactly want to. But J kept dragging her in on her nonsense, and then Ginny kept showing up and roping her into her nonsense... It was getting completely obnoxious. So, after several weeks of nonsense, V took matters into her own hands. 

Lurking near a secret passage in the dungeons that one of her adders had discovered, she nabbed Teresa as she emerged from the common room and pulled her into the passage before she could even yelp. 

“Shush,” she told the girl, who seemed to be about to scream. “It's just me.” 

Teresa glared at her. “Why did you do that? You nearly scared the life out of me!” 

“No I didn't,” V deadpanned. “You'd know if I had, you're just being dramatic. Look. I have a problem, and you are uniquely equipped to handle it.” 

Teresa blinked. “Me? Handle your problem? How?” 

V rolled her eyes. “It's Ginny and J.”

The other girl still looked lost. “But Ginny is our friend? And the weird girl is your friend?” She paused. “...are they fighting?” 

V took a deep breath, before letting it out again. “Yes. Over you.” 

“...the weird girl wants to be my friend?” Teresa guessed. “That's pretty exciting, I haven't had any friends before Hogwarts... but why's she fighting with Ginny? I can have multiple friends.” 

V let out an involuntary snort. “...ignore that,” she muttered. “You know what, yeah, go do that. Tell them both that they can both be your friends.” She thought for a moment. “I bet they'd like to hold hands. You have two hands, don't you?” 

Teresa lit up. “Like best friends? I'd have two best friends? Awesome! Thanks, cool Hufflepuff!” She raced out of the passage. 

V waited until she was well out of earshot before bursting out laughing. “Ohhh, J's gonna kill me,” she snickered. “Worth it.” 

XD 

And then, there were the whispers. The frustratingly elusive Parseltongue whispers that seemed to be everywhere V wasn't. 

She was still looking for the hungry serpent, somewhat because she wanted to help them, but by now mostly because she was getting frustrated about it giving V the slip all the time. In fact, that frustration got her in trouble. 

She'd stowed her Cloak to hear better, because things seemed to be muffled under it, but she was so focused on potential Parseltongue that she missed mundane noises - and collided with Mr. Ladderman. Past curfew, stalking the halls. 

That got her a reprimand, and a detention of doing maidwork - cleaning the castle. V was so incensed about things she thought she'd left behind in the Manor slash with the humans that she complained about it to everyone in earshot for days. 

And then, suddenly, it was time for Halloween. 

XD 

V shot a smug grin to the trio of Teresa, Ginny, and J, the latter two very reluctant to let go of the former's hands, even as she sat down at the Hufflepuff table herself. 

The Hall was impressive, she had to admit; there were enormous carved pumpkins decorating the Great Hall, large enough for grown men to stand up inside and have extra headroom, filled with floating candles; More candles decorated the walls while live bats swooped under the ceiling. V contemplated snagging and eating one, but perhaps not. After all, apparently bats carried the plague somewhere in the 20th or 21st century, and she had no intention of becoming Patient Zero. 

The headmaster called the Feast begun, and from somewhere, dancing skeletons emerged. Looked like that rumour was true, after all - although V didn't think much of their dancing. 

She was just finishing up a most lovely cut of steak before she heard it. 

The whisper. 

She looked around, but everyone else was occupied with the Feast. Well... she was just about done anyway, so V stealthily prepared a [null] teleport and vanished. 

She reappeared in the dungeons, and the whisper was louder here. Pinpointing a direction, she rushed after it. 

Not long, and she could finally distinguish words. 

~So hungry... for so long...~

~Who's been starving you!?~ V called out, hoping she was close enough. 

~I hear a snakeling,~ she heard back. ~No... A Speaker! It has been so long... But I-~

The voice suddenly cut off. ~Are you okay?~ V called out. 

~I... I didn't notice... [undecipherable hissing]... I will find you again, Speaker, but I must go...~

~Wait!~ V called out again. ~If you're hungry, I can still-~

She skidded around the corner and stopped. There was Frank Ladderman, stiff and frozen, holding a lens of some sort, looking through it with one eye closed. He didn't move. Didn't even breathe. 

Behind him, on the wall, there was a message written in large, bloody letters. 

THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED. 

ENEMIES OF THE HEIR BEWARE. 

As V stared at the message, she slowly became aware of several things. 

First, the Slytherins were convinced that she was something called the Heir of Slytherin, because of her little display on September First. 

Second, she had left the Feast early to chase a mysterious serpent only she seemed to care about, without telling anyone that she was leaving. 

Third, she had been complaining about Mr. Ladderman for days recently, and now he was frozen somehow. Not dead, simply frozen. 

Fourth, she had been hearing footsteps as she was chasing the voice, but hadn't paid any attention to them at the time. 

V turned around, slowly, and came face to face with the entire Gryffindor/Ravenclaw contingent, staring at her in horror. 

She thought for a moment. 

“He was like that when I got here?” she tried. 

The screaming started. 

Chapter Text

V found herself in the nearest teacher's office, which just so happened to be Lockhart's, as the teachers argued over her. She had to admit, it didn't look good, to be found next to a staff member's petrified (not dead, apparently merely petrified) body. Curious, she tuned back into the argument. 

“...perhaps she was merely in the wrong place at the wrong time?” professor Teach suggested apathetically. “But of course, who am I to judge...”

“Or perhaps,” Lockhart suggested with surprising venom, “she is a monster in disguise who won't hesitate to slaughter anyone who gets in her way!” 

“ Really now , Gilderoy!” professor McGonagall exclaimed. “She's twelve!”

“And capable of commanding forces that even I, Gilderoy Lockhart, balk at!” the man declared. “I have seen- ” he cut himself off. “Ahem. My sixth sense as an adventurer tells me that, and it's never been wrong!” 

McGonagall snorted. “Forgive me if I remain skeptical, Gilderoy.” 

“Or perhaps we could simply ask her for her side of the story?” professor Teach suggested drolly. “I assume that is why she's here...” 

“Capital idea!” Lockhart exclaimed. “Violet Potter, how did you petrify the caretaker?” 

V raised an eyebrow at him. 

“ Gilderoy Lockhart!” McGonagall snapped. 

“Innocent until proven guilty, Albus would say at this point,” professor Teach drawled. “What were you doing there, miss Potter? You don't sleep in the towers.” 

V eyed Lockhart. “I would rather not say near such a biased spectator, professor Teach.” 

“Practically an admission of guilt,” Lockhart commented. 

V looked at him oddly. “...are you upset about the pixies, your scam revenue, or the broomstick joke? Because I can't think of any other specific instances of why you would be mad at me.” 

Professor McGonagall's gaze snapped to Lockhart. “ What broomstick joke?”

“...Wait, I promised not to tell, right?” V ‘realized’. “Our little secret, right Professor?” 

For some reason, Lockhart's face was now the colour of expired milk and McGonagall looked ready to start spewing flames. “W-well,” the man stuttered. 

V, on the other hand, found herself gently led out of the room by the third professor. “I think you should go back to your common room for now, miss Potter.” 

“That would be best,” V agreed, cued up a [ null ] teleport and disappeared. 

XD 

Of course, that didn't mean her troubles were over for the night. Entering her common room, V found herself faced with a sea of wands pointed at her. She blinked at it in bemusement. 

“Not another step,” declared a seventh-year whose name V hadn't bothered learning. “Not until we determine that you aren't a threat to Hufflepuff as a whole.”

V blinked at that, too. “...Ooookayyy. Whatever happened to ‘innocent until proven guilty’?” 

“Rumour travels fast,” a sixth-year continued. “Slytherin's Chamber has been opened. The enemies of Slytherin's Heir are in danger - and everyone agrees that you are the Heir.” 

“...By that logic,” V began curiously, “wouldn't it be more sensible to not declare yourself an enemy of me?” 

“So you admit it!” the seventh-year crowed. 

V deadpanned at him. “No. I was starting a logical argument.” 

“Logically,” a different seventh-year pointed out, “You are a Parselmouth, a talent famously in Slytherin's family, you basically declared yourself the Heir on the first day if Slytherins are to be believed, you left the Feast early, and you had beef with the caretaker, whom you've now taken care of. The evidence adds up.”

Well, when put like that... 

“Yeah, all put together, it does look pretty bad,” V agreed. “But, counterargument, points two and five are hearsay and not admissible in court.”

“You also aren't acting like an innocent person would,” someone else added. “You look like you're about to attack us.” 

“I look like I'm about to defend myself from an entire common room's worth of spellfire,” V argued back, “which is a perfectly reasonable reaction!” 

“And then there's the clearly Dark Magic twirling around your fingers,” the second seventh-year concluded. 

V looked down at the [trl] slowly spinning around her hand. That... That was a good point, dammit. 

“...You've all made up your minds already, haven't you?” she asked rhetorically. “Well, whatever. I'd like to sleep in my own bed tonight, so what do I have to do to accomplish that?” 

“We can't let you-” someone began, but V had enough. 

“Here's the deal,” she snarled, snapping a [rot] dome around her, “ You lot get your asses kicked tonight, I'll sleep in my bed, and we'll never speak of this travesty again, how about that?”

“You are-” someone began, before V cut her off.

“A cornered badger?” She deployed her claws, Solver fully active. “ You bet.”

Someone fired a spell. V wasn't sure who, but to be frank she also didn't care. Using moves she'd seen employed against her in that Prom all those years ago, she walked through the hail of spellfire as the Solver did all the deflecting for her, calm and unbothered all the way to the dorm door, before turning around. The room's occupants were staring at her with pale faces. 

“It wasn't me, for the record,” she drawled. “But good on you for jumping at a second-year. Imagine if I didn't have these abilities.” She shook her head, opening the door. “For shame. Goodnight.” She slammed the door behind her. 

XD 

V sighed as she looked at Bones and Abbott's raised wands. “If the upper-years couldn't make a scratch on me,” she questioned wearily, “What makes you think you could do better? More to the point, where does everyone get their information?” 

“The Gossip Network has an interhouse Quick Messaging System,” J informed her from her bed. “The two biggest gossips in our year are Gryffindors. You do the math.” 

“Horrid,” V deadpanned. “Okay, Bones, put that down before you hurt someone. You too, Abbott.”

“Are you the Heir of Slytherin?” Bones asked seriously.

“Did you hurt Mr. Ladderman?” Abbott added on.

V rolled her eyes. “Unlikely, and no.”

“...unlikely?” Bones deadpanned.

“Man lived a thousand years ago and I don’t know my mother’s side family history,” V muttered back. “Look. Did I scare the pants off a bunch of Slytherins? Yeah, but they were about to commit a lynching so I saved some asses there. Did I have beef with Ladderman? Yes, but my resolve was to sneak better not attack him. Am I being accused unfairly?”

She took a deep breath. “...No. I’m a sociopath, and I know it. But of this attack, I am innocent, no matter what you or some superstitious upper-years... or Lockhart... say.”

“Why does Lockhart have beef with you?” J questioned incredulously. 

V shrugged. “Could be any number of things, honestly. Might be salty about the pixies... or the first day pop quiz... or the lost revenue... or me and Lizzy making fun of him... Or he might have figured out why he ‘fainted’ in the summer at the book signing...”

“Not spoiled for choice, are we?” Bones snarked, lowering her wand. “Fine, fine. You’re a menace, but probably not a lethal menace.”

“They don’t let me get away with that here,” V grinned, looking at J in expectation.

“Oh go to bed then,” J groaned. “Since you were so tired. ”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.”

Chapter Text

Things didn't improve in the morning, either, because everyone in the Great Hall was either staring at or whispering about her. V pushed her food around on her plate, trying to block it out, before it got too much for her already limited patience. 

~You should complain to your nest-mother,~ an adder suggested. 

~Don't have that one and you know it very well,~ V hissed. 

~Den-mother, then,~ the adder offered. ~Den should be safe for snakelings.~

V took a deep breath and let it out. “ Fine.” She pushed her plate away and stood up, marching to the Head Table, ignoring curious looks from most of the teachers. “Professor Sprout,” she addressed her Head of House. 

The woman blinked at her. “Good morning, miss Potter! How may I help you?” 

“Is it normal for upper-years to persecute lower-years based on rumours and gossip?” V asked, leaning against the table. Professor Sprout frowned. 

“No, it isn't. Might I ask for the names of anyone persecuting you?” 

V thought for a moment. And then another. “...I don't think I've made a habit of learning the names of anyone outside my friend group or the Quidditch team,” she said finally. “So I don't know who they are.” 

Professor Sprout sighed. “Well, then I'm afraid I can't help. Mere shunning is, without names, hard to-” 

“Spellfire.” 

“-prove... I beg your pardon?” The kindly woman suddenly looked steely. “Repeat that, please?” 

“I was dodging spellfire from the upper-years last night,” V repeated, and Professor Sprout now looked furious. 

“ Right,” the woman growled, yes, actually growled as she stood. “Leave this to me - you can return to your breakfast.” 

V smiled. “Oh, no, I'm done. May I watch?” 

XD 

“ ...Appalling behaviour from all of you!” Professor Sprout thundered at the Common Room full of sixth- and seventh-years, who were all sitting on the couches, heads bowed in shame. 

V, on the other hand, was leaning against the doorframe, grinning like a cat that caught the canary. 

“But... Professor!” Someone protested. “She does have Dark Magic!” 

“Which you didn't find out until after you attacked her,” professor Sprout replied pointedly. “At which point, I don't care if the magic is light, dark, or sideways, what I care about is that it kept her safe.” Her eyes narrowed. “ Unlike you all.” 

“She could be a danger to Hufflepuff...?” someone suggested, but it was clear from their voice that it was a losing argument already. 

“Funny, that's the exact argument the Muggles used to justify witch-burnings,” V deadpanned from the door. “Here I thought wixen could be above that, but clearly, what do I know?” 

“Where did you get your Dark Magic!” someone shouted. 

“ Detention, Williamson!” professor Sprout snapped. 

“My mother gave it to me as protection when she sacrificed herself to vanquish You Know Who,” V answered. “So, you know. Take it as you will.” 

That statement got everyone exchanging glances. 

V smirked. 

XD 

That afternoon was Quidditch practice, and also the last cool reception for a while, before Diggory metaphorically slapped everyone upside the head. 

“Rivalries at the door, people!” he called out. “Out here, only the Quidditch matters!” 

“Okay Wood,” V yelled back, getting a flipped bird in return (and coincidentally also breaking the ice). 

“Right!” Diggory called. “Next weekend is Gryffindor vs Slytherin, and I want to see you all at the match, okay? I don't care who you support, just get there and watch their plays! Corporate espionage, people!”

“You're a terrible influence, J,” V whispered. 

“Shut up, V,” J whispered back.

“Right, let's put the Muggle Dark Magic into practice! Team, in play!” 

So they did a play. V, J, and roN passed the Quaffle between each other at high speed, before roN passed it to J and the trio assumed a Hawkshead formation, speeding to the opposite end of the pitch, dodging Bludgers from Walker and Leanne, while Diggory, Harris, and Williams played the part of opposing Chasers. 

The ‘opponents’ formed a wall in front of them as J pulled up while V and roN went down and out in an expanding triangle, with J passing to roN, who passed it back, she threw it at V, who scored, the ball collected by a diving roN. 

“Nicely done!” Diggory called out. “How about you, Crawley?” 

“Almost had that!” Crawley reported. “I'm getting better, but Wood better have trouble with it!” 

“Remember, we're playing Ravenclaw,” Diggory reminded. “So you're up against Page. He's good, but not as good as Wood. So...”

“So we'll flatten them,” J deadpanned. “When do we play Gryffindor?” 

“March,” Diggory replied distractedly. “I'm still worried about Potter.” 

“Me?” V deadpanned. “Didn't you say non-Quidditch rivalries were left at the door?” 

Diggory started. “Oh! No, not you. There's a Muggleborn Potter in Ravenclaw, I think his name is Harry or Johnny or Tommy or something like that, he's their Seeker. If we didn't have Tonks last year, he'd have flattened us.” 

“Well, don't worry,” V grinned. “We'll score so many points that the Pretender Potter is free to catch the Snitch, we'll still win.” 

Diggory grinned. “That's what you're here for. He'll graduate this year, so we'll have him against us only for one season, but that's a load off my mind anyway.”

He looked around. “Now! Walker, Wilkes...” 

V leaned in to J. “Who's Wilkes?”

“Our dormmate,” J shot back. “Leanne? Remember?” 

“Oh, okay,” V replied. “She didn't give her last name last year, so I didn't bother to remember it.” 

“You're irritating,” J sighed. 

XD 

Aside from all that, V was still curious about the message left behind by whatever petrified Ladderman. So she went to investigate - fully clad in her Invisibility Cloak, of course, she had no intention of getting caught this time. 

The message gleamed against the wall, still bright red for some reason. V sniffed at it. 

Blood... but not human blood. She unsheathed a claw and scraped a little, to taste it... Huh. Chicken. Pretty okay, she supposed. So whoever got it, either swiped it from the kitchens or from Hagrid. What else was around? 

Just an out of order bathroom, apparently. She poked her head in. 

...nope, nothing remarkable. 

So, what did she know? 

Message written in chicken blood and preserved through magical means. Message implicating her, but not... really? 

...Message implicating ‘The Heir’. So, someone pretentious enough to think themselves an Heir. And then, of course, the Chamber of Secrets... 

...Whatever that was. She'd just ask Lizzy. 

XD 

“So what's the Chamber of Secrets?” V asked, sitting down next to Lizzy at the Slytherin table without a care in the world, ignoring odd looks from the rest of the Slytherins. 

“Shouldn't you already know?” Lizzy snarked. “Well, it's a Slytherin legend. Supposedly, when Salazar left the school, he left behind a Chamber filled with secrets of magic he had collected over the years, along with a monster of some kind to guard it. Of course, some people think the monster was there to “purge the unclean” or whatever. It's been so long, though, so nobody knows what the monster is. Or was. Whatever, you get my point.”

V hmmed. She looked up at the giant green banners above the table, all depicting a snake. 

She looked back down. “It's a snake of some kind, isn't it?” 

“No shit, V.” 

Chapter Text

During the week before the Gryffindor/Slytherin Quidditch match, V cornered each of her friends/acquaintances and told them to meet up at Friday afternoon on the seventh floor for a meeting, and then proceeded to avoid them outside of class for the entire week, while dodging hexes from suspicious students while visible, and the teachers altogether when invisible, which happened quite often. 

The atmosphere being charged by the House rivalry didn't help much, either. More than once, V contemplated just going ham on the school with the Solver, before reconsidering. She really didn't want to deal with that hassle that things would generate. 

At any rate, on Friday afternoon, she was right there on the Seventh Floor, pacing in front of the door, asking for something spacious enough. 

The doors opened into a cathedral interior, decorated with illusory computers and old bloodstains, with a large circular dais at the end. 

V generated a Translate and stared at it. “This one is from you, isn't it?” 

In a manner of speaking. 

...whatever that meant. 

There was a knock on the doors. V snapped her fingers, letting the doors creak open. 

“... Merlin, Potter, you don't do things halfway, do you?” Bones’ voice questioned, accompanied by footsteps. 

V turned around, gazing at a concerned roN, worried J, cautious Bones, unshakable Lizzy, careful Malfoy, curious Ginny, and awed Teresa. “It's a memory,” she said. “Not necessarily mine. A place from a different time.” 

“...right, you and your reincarnation thing,” Bones nodded. “Why are we here, though? Are you having a crisis of drama or something?” 

V rolled her eyes. “Not necessarily. I asked the Room for a larger space, and it pulled this from... somewhere. I've only been here once, and that was after a thing that... you lot don't need to know about.”

She sat down on the days, crosslegged, gazing at her friends. “....none of you believe that I attacked the caretaker, right?” 

“Of course we don't!” roN exploded. “You're our friend, V, that means we stand by you! Is that why you've been avoiding us?” 

V shrugged. “Nah. I've mostly been avoiding you so that you won't be caught in the spellfire.”

The other students stilled. “...people are still hexing you?” J questioned incredulously. “They can't! What if you miss our match!” 

V rolled her eyes. “J, focus. Besides, I have auto-deflect on. ” 

J squinted at her. “...auto- what now?” 

In response, V let the dome of [rot] blink into and then back out of existence for a moment. 

“...Have you been getting enough blood?” Lizzy asked seriously. “Standing offer, you know the deal.” 

“...I can manage,” V muttered. She would like to get some sip, but... not now, not in the open. 

“At any rate,” she changed the topic, “I should probably tell you what I was actually doing there.” 

“I just assumed you had gotten bored of the Feast and went for a walk,” Ginny piped up. “Or was there something else?” 

V rubbed the back of her neck. “Well... I've been thinking-”

“Make sure you don't hurt yourself,” J snarked. 

“-shut it J, and I'm pretty sure I was chasing Slytherin's monster.” 

There was a pause as her friends stared at her in bewilderment. 

“...So you know what it is?” Teresa asked. 

“A snake of some kind, obviously,” V replied. “All I know is that she's hungry, and possibly attacked Ladderman by accident, but I haven't yet figured out what kind of snake can do all that.” 

“We'll have to look that up in the library,” J mused. “Are we telling the teachers?” 

“Would that help?” V retorted. 

“...Good point,” J reluctantly acknowledged. “Well, if that's all...” 

V rolled her eyes once more. “Yeah, that's all. Hey, Liz, about that offer...” 

Lizzy, grinning, was already baring her neck. 

XD 

And then it was time to watch Quidditch. V, J, and roN were in the Hufflepuff section, roN painted up in Gryffindor colours (to support his sister), J in Slytherin colours (to just be contrary, V suspected) and V herself in no colours but waving a green flag (to support Lizzy, obviously). 

A boy in red and gold robes, and carrying a megaphone, raised his instrument of doom. “WELCOME TO THE FIRST QUIDDITCH MATCH OF THE SEASON! I'M LEE JORDAN, AND I'M DOING COMMENTATING FOR YOU - AND HERE COMES THE GRYFFINDOR TEAM! AS KEEPER, WOOD!” 

The Gryffindors started cheering as a figure on a broom shot onto the pitch. 

“AS CHASERS, SPINNET, JOHNSON, AND BELL!” 

The cheering intensified as three more figures appeared in a Hawkshead formation, circling the pitch before coming to a hover in the center. 

“TWO BEATERS FOR THE PRICE OF ONE, WEASLEY AND WEASLEY!” 

Two more figures, this time identical and with flaming red hair, both waving. 

“AND THE YOUNGEST SEEKER IN A CENTURY, GINNY WEASLEY!” 

“Woooo!” roN yelled out at the final, tiny figure in red. “Go, little sister! I believe in you!” 

“AND NOW FOR THE SLYTHERIN TEAM!” Jordan boomed. “KEEPER, BLETCHLEY! CHASERS, FLINT, WARRINGTON, AND PUCEY! BEATERS, MALFOY AND PARKINSON! AND SEEKER, SECOND YOUNGEST IN A CENTURY, ELIOT!” 

As the seven players zoomed onto the pitch in formation, to cheers from the Slytherin contingent and boos from the Gryffindor one, V glanced at J. Suddenly, her Slytherin decoration made sense, and V was kinda proud of Teresa for keeping it secret for so long. 

“AND AS REFEREE, OUR LOVELY MADAM HOOCH!” 

The hawklike woman marched onto the pitch, suitcase in hand. She put it down and kicked it open. 

The two Bludgers zoomed out of it immediately. The Snitch, too, darted out of the suitcase, to parts unknown. Madam Hooch picked up the Quaffle and eyed the players - Keepers at their goalposts, Chasers around the central area, Seekers higher, and beaters at midpoints, all awaiting the go. 

“I want a nice, clean game from all of you,” she cautioned, her voice clearly magically amplified as V could hear it clear as day. “Good? Good.” 

She blew her whistle, throwing the Quaffle straight up as the Chasers swooped in on it. 

“THE QUAFFLE IS IN PLAY AND THE GAME IS ON!” Jordan declared. “JOHNSON HAS THE BALL, AND LOOK AT THESE NEW BROOMS GO! WHOEVER THE ANONYMOUS DONATOR WAS, YOU HAVE MY SUPPORT! JOHNSON PASSES TO BELL, BELL TO SPINNET - BACK TO BELL - SPINNET - JOHNSON, OH THEY MUST HAVE BEEN PRACTICING A LOT, HAVEN'T THEY? JOHNSON STILL HAS THE- NO, WAIT, SPINNET, SHE THROWS, AND SCORES! TEN - NIL TO GRYFFINDOR, PUCEY HAS THE QUAFFLE!” 

The game was fast and brutal. The Gryffindor Chasers seemed to favour sheer speed given by their new brooms, while the Slytherin Chasers, while still fast, relied more on blocking and fouling. Lizzy and Malfoy delighted in knocking Bludgers into various Chasers, sometimes even their own. 

Things changed when Gryffindor was awarded the first penalty, and Bletchley caught the Quaffle perfectly, throwing it at Flint, and the play was on. And then it dawned. 

Slytherin's Keeper wasn't the best at predicting the chaos of a normal Quaffle game, but he was excellent at predicting penalties. So the Slytherin team was configured around the penalty game - get fouled, opposite team gets a penalty, Keeper catches the Penalty, throws it at the Chasers and they're out of there before the opposing Chasers realise what happened. 

V sort of approved the hustle, but she didn’t think it'd work very well against Hufflepuff. 

Points were scored left and right; as soon as one team got a point, the other pressed on until they also got a point. And then, at 110-110...

“AND THE SEEKERS ARE DIVING! SOMEONE HAS SEEN THE SNITCH, THEY'RE NECK AND NECK!”

Indeed, both Ginny and Teresa were plummeting from the sky. Next to V, J actually stood up, yelling almost right into V's ear. 

V simply pointed her binoculars at the Seekers. They were right next to each other and by now horizontal just above the pitch, both going flat out towards the rapidly-fleeing golden speck in front of them... 

There was a jolt and Teresa jumped forwards and off her broom, and V couldn't see the golden speck anymore. 

J choked on something. 

Teresa rolled on the soft grass several times, before jumping up and holding something aloft. The Golden Snitch. 

Ginny braked right next to her and pulled the other girl into a brief hug, saying something, before pulling away and assuming a defeated posture that nobody who knew her bought. 

“DAMN IT!” Jordan yelled. “ELIOT HAS CAUGHT THE SNITCH, SLYTHERIN WINS 260-110!” 

The Slytherin stands (and J) exploded into cheers.

Chapter Text

The castle wasn't nearly as electrified, leading up to the Hufflepuff/Ravenclaw match. The two Houses just didn't have as much of a rivalry as Gryffindor and Slytherin. Instead, there was a different kind of tension.

That being, of course, V. 

The school seemed to be hanging by a thread, just waiting for the next time V attacked somebody. Which was a bit insulting, if she was being honest. 

“You know,” she mused to Lizzy on Tuesday morning, helping herself to the pancakes at the Slytherin table, “the fact that everyone thinks I'd just stick around at a crime scene is kind of insulting.” 

“...Is that so?” Lizzy drawled with a smirk. “And are you going to tell everyone in earshot what you'd actually do, or are you going to stop digging?”

V frowned at her. “Oh come on. You know as well as I do that I wouldn't be nearly as sloppy about attacking someone as that. I'd be far sneakier about it.”

“I dunno, your speciality seems to be stabbing things,” Lizzy drawled, looking very amused about something. “Frankly I could tell it wasn't you because the caretaker had no visible injuries.” 

V crossed her arms, pouting. “I can too go without blood. Honestly next time I trip over a body I'm just gonna hide. Can't accuse me if I'm not even there.”

Lizzy snickered. “You do that.” 

XD 

On Wednesday, V got into a fight with a Gryffindor. 

Or rather, the Gryffindor picked a fight with V. Consequently, the Gryffindor got his ass kicked and was hung out to dry. 

V didn't bother to remember his name. T something. V didn't know, and didn't care. 

Honestly, though. Drawing her as a snake. He was asking for it. Just because she could speak to snakes didn't mean that she was one! 

She was a cat. Obviously. 

Gryffindors. 

XD 

On Thursday, Lockhart gave her detention. 

V thought it was very unfair. She hadn’t even done anything this time!

Aside from, you know, sabotaging Lockhart’s chair so that he fell onto his arse and made a fool of himself in front of the class, but it’s not like he knew it was her, he was just being petty!

Like he needed V’s help to make a fool of himself. Which she then said to his face. Which probably didn’t help, but he was a ponce, she couldn’t help it!

So she had a detention on Friday evening. With Lockhart.

“If he turns up Petrified,” she muttered to Lizzy, “it wasn’t me. If he turns up hanged by his own entrails, then that probably was me.”

“See me after detention,” Lizzy suggested. “If you’re dripping with blood, I’ll be your alibi.”

“Bitch,” V responded, but she was grinning.

XD

So on Friday, V had the detention.

She walked into Lockhart’s office and balked at the wall-to-wall portraits of the man himself. Was his ego truly limitless? She took a deep breath, and exhaled.

“...Well, I’m here. Now what?”

“Ah, miss Potter!” Lockhart greeted jovially. “Now, I have a special assignment for you.”

“Can’t wait,” V drawled. “But if it involves you touching me, nobody will find your body.”

Lockhart smiled, but it looked a little forced. “So violent, miss Potter... this is why you are a monster. But I think we can temper this... monster-ness a little.”

He put a quill, an inkwell, and a long roll of parchment onto the table, eyes gleaming. “I see you’re always being very creative in class, miss Potter. You should find a better outlet for your creativity, so here it is!”

V stared at the roll of parchment. “...What, exactly, do you want me to do here?”

“I want you to write a story, ” Lockhart replied, smiling. “A story about me, of course, but as a challenge, I want you to portray me in a positive light.”

V blanched. “...excuse me?”

“You are going to write a nice story about me,” Lockhart repeated. “This roll of parchment should do.”

“...this is cruel and unusual punishment,” V muttered. 

XD

Several hours later found V wandering the school, mentally and emotionally wrung out. ~Can’t even kill him,~ she hissed to herself. ~If he did anything, sure, I could claim self-defense, but THIS bullshit? What kind of absolute shit is that?~

~What ails you, little one?~ a voice asked from somewhere.

~My teacher made me write stories about HIM for detention,~ V hissed back, recognising a snake nearby. ~He’s an idiot and I hate him, and he knows it.~

~How unfortunate,~ the voice sympathized. ~Does he need to be taken care of?~

~If I could get away with it, I’d do it in a heartbeat,~ V groused. ~Unfortunately, everyone is suspicious of me since the caretaker was mysteriously petrified two weeks ago, so I can’t.~

~My apologies about that,~ the voice replied. ~I didn’t see him in time, and couldn’t close my eyes fast enough. I try not to kill the school’s inhabitants, after all.~

~Sucks,~ V agreed, too tired to engage her brain properly. ~Sure wish that annoying Gryffindor could go and be out of the way for a while, I have Quidditch tomorrow and I really don’t want to see another drawing again...~

~I’ll have to confirm with my other little one,~ the voice replied, ~But I’ll see what I can do. I think that’s your stop. Goodnight, little one.~

~Goodnight,~ V yawned, knocking the right pattern onto the Hufflepuff barrel entrance and heading straight to bed.

When she woke up the next morning, she had forgotten the conversation entirely.

XD

And then, finally, it was time for the Hufflepuff/Ravenclaw match.

The Hufflepuff team was pacing in their locker room as Lee Jordan introduced the Ravenclaws.

“AAAAAAAAND... POTTER AS THE SEEKER!”

“Right, our go,” Diggory muttered. “Mount your brooms, everyone!”

V, J, and roN exchanged feral grins as they mounted up. There was a kind of electricity in the air, now.

“AND NOW, THE HUFFLEPUFF TEAM! CRAWLEY AS THE KEEPER!”  

Saluting, Crawley shot out of the locker room.

“POTTER, GRANGER, AND WEASLEY AS THE CHASERS!”

JVroN took off in a Hawkshead with J at the lead and V & roN at the wings, swooping across the field and screeching to a halt at the central circle, eyeing up Ravenclaw’s rather forgettable Chaser complement.

“WALKER AND WILKES AS THE BEATERS!”

Leanne and Walker joined them on the pitch, clutching their bats.

“ANNNNNNNDDD.... DIGGORY AS THE SEEKER!”

At last, Cedric emerged, swooping in and staying high, looking over the team.

“AND INTRODUCING OUR LOVELY MADAM HOOCH AS THE REFEREE!”

Madam Hooch marched onto the pitch, eyeing both teams. “Well, this’ll be interesting,” she commented. “Clean game from all of you, got it?” She kicked the ballcase open, Bludgers and Snitch zooming away.

J and V grinned ferociously. roN gave a thumbs up.

The Ravenclaw Chasers were looking like they were regretting getting out of bed that morning. 

Hooch threw the Quaffle in the air, V swooping in and snatching it right from under a Ravenclaw's nose, and the game was on. 

“AND POTTER HAS THE QUAFFLE - NO, WEASLEY - OH [BLEEP] ME THEY'RE FAST!” 

“Jordan!” Professor McGonagall snapped from next to him. 

J, V, and N were passing the Quaffle between them with a near-blinding speed, back and forth even as they raced towards the Ravenclaw end of the pitch, the Raven Chasers right on their tail. J swooped into the scoring area, before reversing and allowing roN to swish past her, throwing the Quaffle straight past the startled Keeper and into the far hoop. 

“WEASLEY SCORES, TEN - NIL TO HUFFLEPUFF!” 

Page, the Ravenclaw Keeper, threw the Quaffle at a Chaser in blue, who was immediately struck by a Bludger from Leanne and dropped it into V's waiting arms. Ten seconds later, J scored Hufflepuff’s second goal. 

That... kind of set the tone for the match. J, V, or roN would score, Page would pass the Quaffle to a Ravenclaw, who'd then be beset by a Bludger and drop it for JVroN to get off another score. 

At 100 - 0, they finally got their heads on straight and started catching the dropped Quaffles on their own, only to run into a new problem - Crawley, who at one point straight up yelled “I could have blocked this in my sleep! Stop going easy on me, dammit!” 

V snickered at that. During practice, they had gone full tilt at Crawley and set that as a measurement for success - but the Ravenclaw team simply wasn't up to their level, and Crawley could block everything effortlessly. 

And so the game continued. At some point, even Jordan was crying out, “SOMEBODY SHOULD REALLY CATCH THE SNITCH AT THIS POINT, I DON'T CARE WHO, JUST END IT ALREADY!” 

And then, the Ravenclaw Potter dived. Diggory was immediately at his heels, but the other Potter was fast and nimble and he got there first. 

Not that it mattered much. 

“POTTER CATCHES THE SNITCH! AND WITH A SCORE OF... 630 TO 150... HUFFLEPUFF WINS BY A LANDSLIDE! RAVENCLAW IS GOING TO NEED A LOT OF TRAINING... OR HUGS... TO RECOVER FROM THIS ONE!” 

“Well done, team,” Diggory said as he swooped down to the grass. “Now to repeat that performance with our next matches and we'll have it in the bag.”

“Poor Ravenclaw,” roN said. “They tried really hard!” 

V nudged him, grinning. “And we did better.” 

XD 

V was riding a high over that match all afternoon, until coming down to dinner as the last person there and discovered that there had been another Petrification. 

“Dean Thomas,” Lizzy informed her. “You know, the Gryffindor who drew you as a snake. He was petrified sometime after the match, when you were unaccounted for.” 

“Well, that's unfortunate but I didn't have anything to do with-” V began, before tripping over a half-remembered memory and freezing. “...Oh. Shit.” 

“...V, we're in the Great Hall,” Lizzy cautioned, but V had already opened her mouth. 

“...I think I complained about him to Slytherin's monster.” 

There was an audible smack as Lizzy dropped her head in her hands, even as the Slytherin table exploded into whispers. 

Chapter Text

Once again, V found herself in a professor's office. This time, however, the professor was Dumbledore. 

The man simply sat there at his desk and looked at V. 

“I heard a most fascinating rumour,” he finally said. “Do you know what it was, miss V?” 

“With the rumour mill being what it is, I don't know what they say about me this time,” V muttered. “Is it the one about me being Voldemort's grandchild again?” 

Dumbledore shook his head, but he was hiding a smile. “Voldemort, I'm afraid, has no children. But I do hear that you claim to be in contact with Slytherin's monster. Is there any truth in this rumour... or are you simply being twelve?” 

V thought about it. “Depends.” 

“Depends on what?” Dumbledore asked gently. 

“...Depends on if you keep calling people monsters,” V finally said. “Sometimes, if people are called monsters enough times, they start to believe it.” 

“Then what should I call it?” Dumbledore asked curiously. 

“...The Serpent of Slytherin,” V stated. “Obviously.” 

“Ah! Of course,” the headmaster replied genially. “And might I ask, what kind of serpent is it?”

V shrugged. “No idea. It's Slytherin, so the serpent connection is obvious, but aside from that, I haven't the faintest clue.” 

“Then how do you know it was the Serpent of Slytherin?” Dumbledore asked. 

V paused, only now realising that she'd implicated herself. “...Uh.”

“Worry not, miss V,” Dumbledore assured her. “You won't be in trouble.” 

“...I was venting,” V finally confessed. “After Lockhart's detention, I was venting to myself, in Parseltongue, and it overheard.” 

“I see,” Dumbledore said. “And what did it say?” 

V scratched the back of her neck, thinking hard. “...I think it apologised for Mr. Ladderman. And asked if I needed help with anything, and I complained about the Gryffindor...” She furrowed her brow. “...drawing a blank from there.” 

The headmaster nodded in thought. “I see. Well, I can safely say that you aren't at fault here, but the next time you encounter the Serpent, might you ask them to talk to me? I wish to hear their version of the events, too.” 

V blinked. “...Wouldn't you get petrified, too?” 

The headmaster chuckled. “Worry not, young V. I have my ways - but I should write to an old friend of mine, first.” He smiled. “You might want to meet him, yourself - but that's for another time. You aren't at fault for these attacks - you may go.” 

Feeling very bemused, V did so. 

XD 

“Well, I got off scot-free,” V declared, dropping into the seat next to Lizzy. “No charges, and Dumbledore knows I'm innocent.” 

“V, I love you, but please don't phrase it like that,” Lizzy groaned. 

V looked at her friend oddly. “Phrase it like what? Nobody could pin anything on me. I’m home free.”

“Would you like another shovel?” Lizzy muttered.

“...Shovel?”

“Did you lose a few brain cells on that broom?” Lizzy muttered. “A shovel for you to keep digging yourself deeper, because you’re still in earshot of everyone, and you keep talking like you’re guilty.”

“...But I’m not guilty,” V pointed out.

“That doesn’t- Oh, fuck this,” Lizzy snapped. “You’re henceforth banned from opening your mouth at the table until whatever is wrong with you passes, got it?”

“...got it,” V groused.

XD

Weeks after that passed slowly, and full of annoyance. It seemed that the entire school wanted to have a go at attacking V, as if that would help anyone. It was as if they were trying to become her enemy, which V couldn't, for the life of her, figure out. 

~Surely,~ she complained to her adders one evening, ~Surely the people would rather leave me alone rather than risk themselves attacking me? Or are brains too much to ask for, from these humans?~

~You should go to your den-mother,~ an adder suggested. ~She helped last time, didn't she?~

~Yeah, but that was only in-house,~ V hissed back. ~The headmaster said I'm innocent, isn't that enough?~

~I'm sorry for causing you this much trouble, little one,~ a voice intervened. 

One of V's adders perked up. ~Night-whisperer! You're back! Did you get to eat, eventually?~

~My little one made sure I had my fill,~ the voice whispered. ~I take care of them, and they take care of me.~

~...wait,~ V finally got out. ~Are you the Serpent of Slytherin?~

~Indeed I am, little one,~ the voice - of the Serpent - replied. ~Is there something you wanted to ask of me?~

~Uh, the Headmaster said he wanted to get your side of the story,~ V replied a little dumbly. ~Also, may I ask, what are you?~

The Serpent sounded a little sad with its reply. ~I'm afraid I'm not at a liberty to answer that question,~ it told her. ~However, I shall look into the current headmaster, and perhaps consult with my current little one. Is there anyone else you'd like Petrified?~

V paused. ~I think I'll officially become an accomplice if I say anything,~ she finally said. ~Can you petrify somebody, well, some OTHER time? Preferably when I have an alibi? Now THAT would be less trouble for me.~

~Wonderful idea, little one,~ the Serpent agreed. ~I'll make sure to try that. Have a good evening, then, little one.~

The voice fell silent, the Serpent moving on. There was a moment of silence. Then... 

~Yeah, let's not mention that conversation to anyone,~ V decided. 

XD 

Sure enough, the next petrification was Justin Finch-Fletchley, who had been rather nasty to V in the hallway and was now found Petrified... while V had been in sight of all four heads of houses, eating lunch. The staff thus called out that the harmful rumours were just that, mere rumours, and if the students would please ‘leave the poor girl alone, for Merlin's sake, don't any of you have schoolwork to do?’. 

V, meanwhile, pumped her fist and excitedly whispered to Bones that she knew having an alibi was a great idea. 

Bones just gave her a weird look at that.

XD 

More weeks passed, and suddenly, Christmas holidays were upon them. This year, J stayed at school, while the vast majority of students left for home. 

In fact, the only ones left at school were the Weasleys, the rest of V's friend circle (including Teresa) and a few scattered first- and seventh-years. 

“Keeping an eye on me, huh?” V asked Bones as she waved goodbye to Abbott. 

“Not everything is about you,” Bones replied absentmindedly. “Auntie's busy this Christmas. And it's... marginally safer at Hogwarts. You're probably not likely to sic Slytherin's monster on your friends anyway.”

“ Thanks,” V snarked. “So glad to hear that much faith in me.” 

“You're welcome,” Bones deadpanned. 

XD 

Christmas morning dawned with V jumping onto J's bed, grinning widely. “Hey! Wake up! It's Christmas!” 

“Since when are you excited about Christmas?” J questioned groggily. “And why are you on top of me?” 

“Because I specifically remembered to give gifts this time,” V replied excitedly, “and you're gonna love mine. C'mon! Up, up, up!” 

J groaned, not moving an inch. “I'm awake. Stop badgering me.”

“I'm a Hufflepuff,” V retorted, grinning. “I'm chronically incapable of not badgering.” 

“Thought you were a cat,” Bones’ voice snarked from the other bed. “Isn't that why you had that fight with Thomas?” 

“Nuance,” V waved it off. “I got you something too, don't worry.” 

“WOW!” echoed through the walls. “THANKS, V!” 

“Hear that, roN already found his,” V grinned. “C'mon, J, get up already!” 

With a long-suffering groan, J climbed to the foot of her bed and looked down. Then she withdrew, rubbed her eyes, and looked again, before bending over and picking up a long, thin package. “...Is that what I think it is?” 

“Open it,” V urged. 

Casting V a suspicious glance, J unwrapped it. Inside was a Nimbus 2001 like V’s, equally custom with hazard patterns, but also something a little special. J gasped. “J- JCJENSON BRANDED- V how did you-”

“Recreated it from memory,” V replied proudly. “Thought you might appreciate- oof! ”

She had her breath knocked out of her by the hug J tackled her into. “Thank you,” the other girl murmured. “I missed- just, thank you.”

“I told you,” V murmured back. “I forgave you a long time ago.”

Chapter Text

The rest of the Christmas Day went well, for once, and V got to see her friends’ reactions to their gifts. She got Lizzy a case of blood pops (with a note that said “so I won’t make you anemic”) and a pair of enchanted sunglasses that looked like a drone visor. 

Ron got another Nimbus 2001, with N’s old patterns and the pilot hat symbol, along with an engraving of his name - written as ‘roN’ of course. V also got him some Cauldron Cakes.

Bones got Chocolate Frogs and a pair of leashes attached to child harnesses - V had written a note saying “if you can sneak them onto us, we’ll keep them on”. She got an eyeroll in return.

V got Ginny and Teresa a pair of matching hair bows that acted on emotions like animal ears, purely to annoy J. She figured the JcJenson broom would be a good enough peace offering, even though the broom came first.

And lastly, to Malfoy, V gave a case of muggle hair products ‘to try out’, and a voucher redeemable to (1) sparing of parents on the battlefield. She planned on giving them out every Christmas and hoped that if Doll ever got her memories, she’d be mollified by the vouchers.

XD

V herself got presents too. From Molly Weasley, she got another sweater and homemade liquorice, with a note saying that she was welcome to stay with the Weasleys anytime she wished. V thought it was sweet, and realized to her horror that she hadn’t gotten Mrs. Weasley anything. So she resolved to not forget her next Christmas. Or summer for that matter. Actually, when was her birthday? She’d have to ask roN.

On that note, from Ron, she got broom polish and some Liqourice Wands.

From Lizzy, she got a voucher for (my neck, unlimited use) and snorted. Lizzy was such a good friend. 

Malfoy gave her a book on Salazar Slytherin and wrote a bunch of question marks all over it. V supposed that it was fair, although she wasn’t quite sure what it was supposed to mean.

From J, she got a pair of Chaser goggles with her prescription and a dark tint, which she appreciated.

From Bones, she apparently got a book. “ A Slytherin’s guide to act with subtlety and grace, ” she read bemusedly. “...What am I supposed to do with that? ”

“Figure it out, you’re a bright girl,” Bones snarked.

From over her bed, J snorted.

And then there was only one gift left, a large metal box sealed with a pair of sturdy doors. V stared down at it. “Oh right, Uzi exists,” she belatedly remembered. She picked up the letter attached and read:

Hey squirt,

What’s been happening? You never call, never write, leaving your poor cousin all on her own in a sea of loneliness!

Okay but seriously write to me every once in a while or I’ll stop getting you gifts. It takes a lot of work to make those, I enchant them myself, you know! One of a kind! I’m working on the multitool arms, but hey, I might keep em to myself next time...

Anyway, the door code is 68876783. Enjoy these.

Uzi

1. No, seriously, write! What’s the latest adventure doing? I neeeeeeed the info here!

“Well, someone’s needy,” V muttered, inputting the code into the keypad and admiring the box’s opening sequence. “Yup, still makes good doors.”

“Wait, the Doorman still makes doors?” J questioned, climbing over. “Is he too, you know?”

“Apparently,” V replied, pulling a strange harness from the box and looking it over. “Okay, so what’s this?”

A note was stuck to it. V pulled it off and read that one too.

Hey - you might need flight this year and not have your broom with you all the time. Sooooo... tadah! You can wear it under clothes if you want, and they should work just like they used to. Have fun terrorizing people with it.

-Uzi

“ Oh, ” she whispered, grin returning, and widening. “Oh fuck the Hell yes. ” She tossed her shirt away and pulled the harness on, before adding the Weasley sweater on top. “Let’s do this.”

She flexed a mental muscle she’d honestly missed, and behind her, safely above the sweater, a pair of steely wings emerged from a fold of space. She dashed off to the bathroom, to the nearest mirror, and cackled in glee.

Two rings hovered above her shoulderblades, faintly glowing with hundreds of tiny runes. From there, arms emerged, tipped by large and curved steel blades like feathers. Another mental flex and she hovered slightly above the ground. She could feel the magic emanating from them.

Okay, fine, she decided in between cackling. I can write to that annoying purple gremlin.

XD

Hey Uzi,

Fine, fine, I’m writing. Things are going. roN, J, and I are on the Quidditch team, we completely flattened Ravenclaw.

Some kind of snake is slithering around. It’s fine, I have it handled, Dumbledore says I’m innocent of any wrongdoing. 

Also there’s like, thirty Parselmouths in school. Or something.

What else do you want, you menace?

V.

V,

What the fuck.

Uzi

Uzi,

What? I’m writing, aren’t I?

V.

V,

Yeah, that’s on me, I put the bar too low. What snake is it and what’s it doing?

Uzi

Uzi,

Very old, apparently. We chat occasionally. It takes care of problems for me.

V.

V,

I reiterate, what the fuck.

Uzi

Uzi,

:) 

V

V,

You’re a complete menace and I don’t know what I expected. 

Fine. I’ll talk to people, you keep me posted. 

Please?

Uzi.

XD

There were no encounters with Slytherin’s Serpent over the holidays, nor was anything interesting happening. Really, the most interesting thing was a letter Ginny received from her family that she didn’t let anyone read, and apparently burned later, but aside from that, the holidays ended on a rather boring note.

The students returned two weeks after New Year’s, and things returned to routine. 

Well, almost routine.

Mostly because V was taking full advantage of Uzi’s equipment, and most of the students were now too scared to even approach her. 

“You know,” J commented as V once again swooped past her, “You really aren’t helping your optics here.”

“Possibly,” V agreed, landing next to her and walking the next few steps to class on foot. “But they’ve all already made up their minds about me, so fuck ‘em.”

“The court of public opinion holds no sway at all over you, does it?” J snarked.

“You bet,” V agreed. 

“And you do realize that the court of public opinion influences the actual courts around here?” J questioned. “Wixen are completely unmodern in so many aspects, you know.”

“If they try anything,” V replied unconcernedly, “Then I suppose I’ll just give up on the wixen.  And when they inevitably get a new Dark Lord on their hands, I suppose I simply won’t help.”

“You have an overinflated sense of your importance,” J groused. “Just... be careful, okay?”

“...Fine, I’ll try.”

Chapter Text

The fourteenth of February brought with itself an entirely new annoyance in the form of an old annoyance. Specifically, Lockhart finally decided to act out again.

V walked into the Great Hall and was immediately assaulted by a sea of pink so egregious even Lizzy would be hard-pressed to appreciate it. She immediately did an about face and walked straight back out, only to be dragged back in by Lizzy and Malfoy.

“I know it’s a bit much,” Lizzy said, grinning, “but we’re about to have a Show.”

“...What do you mean?” V questioned.

“You know how your two friends are dating the little Eliot?” Lizzy questioned with a smirk.

“They’re not dating, we’re too young for that. They’re holding hands between classes and blushing about it,” V deadpanned. “But yeah I know. What’s up?”

“Well,” Malfoy drawled, “Eliot is under the impression that she has two best friends with whom she does everything together, and nobody has done anything to dissuade her of that notion in fear that your snakes would consider it harassment.”

“...And it’s Valentine’s Day,” V realized. “Oh no, this is gonna be a trainwreck. ”

“Yeah, not every girl is as oblivious as you,” Lizzy muttered.

“...Huh?”

“Nevermind.”

The trio of two Slytherins and a Hufflepuff set themselves down at the Gryffindor table, to the bemusement of the Gryffindors.

“No offence,” someone asked, “But why the hell are you lot here?”

V looked up to see one of the Gryffindor Chasers staring at her inquisitively, and grinned ferally. “To enjoy the show of J and Ginny making fools of themselves, hopefully.” They gazed at the Slytherin table, where Teresa Eliot was eating breakfast, oblivious.

From the doors, a pair emerged, a redhead and a brunette, for once not at each others’ throats as they seemed to have established a tentative truce.

“Ooof, I think they’re going to be asking her to choose, ” Malfoy commented, wincing. “This won’t go over well.”

“...what’s going on?” a Gryffindor asked.

“You know how your Seeker has a puppy-crush on our Seeker?” Lizzy asked, watching intently as the pair walked forwards, slowly but with deliberation.

“Hard not to see,” the Chaser replied, rolling her eyes. “Wait, I thought they were together already along with the Hufflepuff chaser?”

“So do they,” V commented. “Too bad nobody told Teresa.”

The Gryffindor paused. “...oh this is going to end so badly. ”

They all watched as J and Ginny came to a stop in front of Teresa, silent for a moment before J cleared her throat.

Teresa looked up, momentarily glum, before her face lit up. “Oh hey! My friends! I’m so glad to see you, I’ve been having a terrible morning...”

Concern on two faces, instantly. “What’s wrong?” “How can we help?” “Do we need to beat someone up?” “Or curse them?”

Teresa shook her head, waving her hands frantically. “No, no, you don’t need to beat up anyone! I think.” She sighed. “It’s just... I didn’t get a single Valentine from any boys today.”

Ginny and J exchanged alarmed glances. “And you... wanted one?” Ginny ventured. 

“From specifically boys? ” J clarified.

Teresa blinked at them. “Well, of course. If I get a Valentine from a boy, that means I have potential future prospects, but if I didn’t get any, that might mean I’m not fit to continue the Eliot line, and that’s no good.”

J and Ginny exchanged another glance. “ We have Valentines for you,” J finally said.

“One from each of us,” Ginny added. “So, you know, we’re still your options.”

Teresa stared at them as if they’d grown another head between them. “No you’re not.”

“What.” “ What? ”

“...You aren’t options,” Teresa repeated. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, you’re both great friends, but you’re girls. And you’re lower class! My parents would kill me! Besides,” she added, looking away and thus not noticing the absolutely crushed expressions on the other two girls, “I can’t date a girl. ”

“Oh,” Ginny said in a very small voice.

J, on the other hand, got her hackles up. “And why not? What’s so wrong with dating a girl, huh!?”

Teresa’s gaze snapped back at J, and now she was glaring. “Because! It’s wrong and unnatural and I’m far better off than to dig in the trash for a date!”

“Oh shit,” V whispered, recognising the speech pattern in an instant. “I know those words.”

“ Well then! ” J snarled. “ This trash is far better off without you anyway!”

Teresa suddenly looked alarmed. “...What?”

“You don’t need me as a Valentine,” J sneered, “Nor, apparently, as a friend! ”

“...you?” Teresa whispered, but J had already marched off, before breaking into a run and hurrying out of the Great Hall.

“We’ve been dating for months,” Ginny said quietly, but everyone in earshot could hear the underlying rage in her tone. “But apparently, I’m too poor for you, huh?”

“No, wait-” Teresa started, looking horrified, but Ginny already slapped her and ran off too, leaving the Slytherin girl sitting at the table, looking shellshocked.

“That wasn’t the show I expected,” V said quietly, before standing up and walking over to the Slytherin table, sitting down next to the firstie. “Hey. Sorry it went like that.”

“ They liked me?” Teresa whispered, still looking pale. “But... they’re nothing like Mother said those types would be like...”

“Does your mother constantly look like she tasted a lemon?” V asked quietly. At Teresa’s nod, she hummed. “I grew up with someone like that. I’ve since learned that none of their opinions hold any weight.”

“...I’ve ruined my friendships, haven’t I?” Teresa asked miserably. “I should just go and have a staring contest with a Basilisk or something. I’m scum.”

“They're all still young,” V replied. “And you haven't shaken off your parents’ toxic mindset yet. All in all...” She considered things for a moment. “...you should probably give them some space for a couple of months.” She thought some more. “You should also ask the librarian for books explaining same-sex relationships. Or maybe Madam Pomfrey... or my Head of House. Don't go killing yourself over this yet, yeah? I'd hate to see you hurt.” 

Teresa gave a watery smile. “Thanks, Potter. I'll, uh, go do that, then.” She wiped her eyes and left the Hall. 

Malfoy sat down at the seat the girl had just vacated, looking glum. “Пиздец,” she muttered. “This went sideways.” 

“What was the ‘oh shit’ about, by the way?” Lizzy asked, sitting down next to V. “What did you recognise?” 

“Original Tessa's mother sounded exactly like that,” V muttered, feeling angry. “Which means that Teresa's mother is also like that, which means that I might need to commit some actual crimes at people.” 

“That bad?” Malfoy questioned. “I'm pretty sure that's called Muggle-baiting and that's illegal.” 

“Less baiting, more hunting,” V snarled. 

Lizzy and Malfoy both looked taken aback by the ferocity. 

“...I'll be your alibi,” Malfoy finally said. “And my papa has very good lawyers if you need them.” 

V grinned. “Appreciated.” 

Chapter Text

J was in such a funk over the Valentine's Day fiasco that she didn't talk to anyone for weeks. It was only in March that V snapped her out of it, with five simple words. 

“She has Louisa here too.” 

At that, J had turned to V with murder in her eyes and ground out a furious what. 

“You didn't notice?” V questioned, eyebrows raised. “Those words were exactly out of Louisa's mouth, and might I remind you, little miss I've-gotten-to-puberty-already, Teresa is eleven.” 

J deflated. “And what can I do about it?” she questioned morosely. “If she is, she's peerage, and I'm the daughter of a dentist. I'd be crucified if I went against them.”

At that, V smiled smugly. “Ah, but you aren't listing all your assets. You also have me, and I have the Malfoy lawyers courtesy of Ursa.” 

J gave her a dead-eyed stare. “And you think you can trust in that?”

“...I can trust in Lizzy to lean onto Malfoy,” V replied after a pause. “But also. You know.” She generated a Translate . “You have me.”

“We can't do magic outside of school, remember?” J reminded her. 

“The Solver doesn't count as magic, remember?” V countered. “I used it in your place all the time and neither of us ever got any warnings.” She grinned. “My gear doesn't trigger any magic alarms either.” 

J rubbed the bridge of her nose, groaning. “Just... no. I... oh, fine, just write the gremlin or something.” 

V shrugged. “Might as well.” 

XD 

Uzi, 

So, update on the J drama, she's finally talking again. Hey, if I need some humans investigated, and possibly taken down, you'd be the person to go to, right? 

V

V, 

Oh, are you finally taking revenge on the Dursleys? 

Uzi

Uzi, 

Who? 

V

V, 

Your old relatives, the ones who ran off to America to be bigots there. Those guys? 

Uzi

Uzi, 

Is that where they went? ...that's a maybe on the revenge, we'll see. 

Okay. Do you remember that trip down the memory lane where you went snooping in mine and N's memories? 

It seems that some of my original humans are here, too. 

V

V, 

Ohhhhh. Okay. Yeah, I remember. Gala full of absolute bastards, and the daughter who was actually pretty cool. Pretty sure she had a thing with J or something. She's the one Cyn was wearing, yeah? 

Uzi

Uzi, 

Yes, as you so succinctly put, that's the one. We're (J and I, I mean) both pretty sure that Teresa Eliot is who she is now. 

One, she's Peerage (Muggleborn). 

Two, she repeated something that sounds exactly like what that absolute bitch Louisa once said, so I'm pretty sure her parents are exactly like her old ones. 

Three, we're pretty sure her last memory is of a mind-controlled J killing her, so we're rather insistent on her not remembering at eleven fucking years old. 

Four, there is no war in Ba Sing Se. 

Five, do you have anything that can take down Peerage and leave no trace? Asking for my reflection's reflection. 

V

V, 

...Fucking hell, you don't do things by halves, do you? 

...also who introduced you to ATLA. 

Anyway, I'll see what I can do. I'll get back to you when I have something. 

Uzi

XD 

V put Uzi's last letter down, sighing. “Well, she promised she'd look into it. I kind of wish she'd look into magical texting, it's tedious as fuck waiting a day between letters.” 

“Shut up, at least it's something,” J shot back. “Robo-gods, but I need a distraction.” 

“And you'll get one!” roN declared, hopping onto the seat and drawing V into a hug. “Quidditch tomorrow! Against Gryffindor, which means against my brothers and sister. I'm suddenly nervous, is anyone else nervous?” 

“Looking forward to beating them,” V replied, grinning. “They might be better than Ravenclaw, but we're just better. Besides, we’ve been practicing, too. ” 

“Their Chasers are as fast as we are, though,” roN countered. “And Fred and George aren't going to go easy on me... actually, I think they might go extra hard...” 

“Counterpoint, your brothers are terrified of me,” V retorted. “Just relax, and imagine their faces when we win.” 

roN squeaked. “I'm imagining it, and it's terrifying.” 

V rolled her eyes. “Oi, J! If the enemy Beaters try anything after the match, you'll back me up, won't you?” 

“ Obviously,” J replied, not looking up from her book. “We're a team, and that's what matters.” 

XD 

And then, it was time for the match. 

“...AAAAAAAAAND GINNY WEASLEY AS THE SEEKER! ROTTEN BIT OF LUCK FOR THE LAST MATCH, BUT SHE'LL PULL THROUGH THIS TIME!” 

“Clear bias,” J snarked. 

“We'll slaughter them,” V grinned. 

“AND FROM THE HUFFLEPUFF TEAM, WE HAVE CRAWLEY AS THE SUSPICIOUSLY COMPETENT KEEPER!” 

“YOU WANT A QUAFFLE TO THE FACE?” Crawley roared as she tore out of the locker room. 

“FEISTY LADY, BUT NOT AS WONDERFUL AS ANGELINA, OF COURSE.” 

“Jordan? Focus.”

“FOCUSING! WEASLEY, GRANGER, AND POTTER AS THE MONSTERS- ER, I MEAN, THE CHASERS!”

“No, you got it right the first time!” J yelled over the din as V grinned. The trio were all wearing a set of custom tinted Chaser goggles - J had gotten one to V and roN each and a third one for herself. V had later discovered that she could enable the Killer’s Cross on them with a button, which looked even more impressive than the Lumos smear she’d been doing.

“WALKER AND WILKES AS THE VICIOUS BEATERS!”

“YOU WANT A BLUDGER YOUR WAY?” Walker yelled, kind of proving Jordan’s point.

“AND DIGGORY AS THE SEEKER THAT DID NOTHING LAST TIME BUT HE’S A GOOD BOY, HE’S TRYING!”

“OI!” Diggory yelled, but he was grinning. “Just you watch, Jordan!”

Once again, Madam Hooch marched onto the pitch, releasing the Bludgers and the Snitch along the way, before looking around. “I want a clean match from all of you, got it?” she asked, not waiting for an answer. “Good! Now go!”

She threw the Quaffle into the air.

XD

The match was far more even than the Ravenclaw one, as the Gryffindor chasers actually gave the trio a challenge, and the Bludgers weren’t just the domain of Walker and Leanne anymore.

Crawley still blocked most shots, to her eternal confusion. “Oi! Johnson!” she finally shouted at the latest block. “Why are you going easy on me?”

“I’m not! ” Johnson snarled back, even as Crawley passed the Quaffle to V, who sped away, cackling. “How the fuck are you always there, you bastard!”

V couldn’t hear Crawley’s reply, but she passed the Quaffle to J, still cackling. They’d told their Keeper that the Gryffindors were on their level and showed her no mercy, so she was still measuring herself by the trio’s metric. 

Looks like the Gryffies weren’t quite at their level, after all-

“V, LOOK OUT!”

V looked over just to see roN swoop in and block a brutal Bludger hit with his own body. She heard the cracks of his ribs snapping on impact, and watched in horror as he slipped from the broom and began to fall.

Madam Hooch blew her whistle even as V activated the Solver, catching roN before he hit the ground at full speed, and settling him gently onto the grass, even as she dove to check on him. J grabbed his broom and followed suit.

“M’fine,” roN slurred out even as Madam Pomfrey appeared from nowhere and began to load him onto a stretcher. “M’okay.”

“You’re not flying any more today,” Madam Pomfrey replied. “Three broken ribs, and whiplash. You’re staying in the Hospital Wing for a while, young man.”

“Is he going to be okay?” V asked frantically. “He’s not in danger of death, is he?”

“In my care?” Madam Pomfrey questioned, looking affronted. “Definitely not!” Her expression softened. “He’s liable to have past memories, isn’t he?”

Taken aback a little, V nodded. “Yeah. I... have mine, as do J and Lizzy.”

“My condolences,” Madam Pomfrey replied. “Might I ask - do you know anyone else who’s liable to have them, and if they had violent deaths? So I know to prepare.”

“Teresa Eliot,” J interrupted seriously. “I was under the Imperious and-” she fell silent.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Madame Pomfrey nodded. “Anyone else?”

“Ursa Malfoy,” V offered. “Don’t know anyone else in school.”

“Ursa... Malfoy,” Pomfrey noted, writing that down. “Thank you, miss Potter, miss Granger. You can go back to the match now, dears.”

Exchanging glances, J and V flew back to the rest of the team. 

“Well?” Diggory asked anxiously.

“Broken ribs and whiplash,” V replied. “He can’t fly.”

“...Can you two manage on your own?” Diggory continued. “I know we don’t have reserves, so we’d have to forfeit otherwise...”

J smiled grimly. “Oh, yes we can. ”

XD

“AND THE MATCH WILL CONTINUE, WITH HUFFLEPUFF BEING A CHASER SHORT!” Jordan yelled out. “A DISADVANTAGE TO BE SURE, SO WE’RE LIKELY TO NOT SEE ANOTHER BLOODBATH LIKE LAST TIME!”

“IT WON’T BE A BLOODBATH,” V yelled at him, “IT’LL BE A MASSACRE! ”

“WELL, THE REMAINING CHASERS SURE ARE CONFIDENT,” Jordan drawled. “NOW, AT THE REF’S DISCRETION... THE QUAFFLE IS IN PLAY- WHOA! ”

J and V swooped in, snatching the Quaffle and passing it between them at lightning speeds, the Killer’s Cross prominently displayed on their goggles. 

“POTTER HAS THE QUAFFLE!” Jordan yelled frantically. “NO, GRANGER - POTTER - I CAN’T KEEP UP - SCORE TO HUFFLEPUFF, FIFTY - TEN!”

True to the word, the remaining match was a massacre. roN’s sunny disposition had won over the entire Hufflepuff team in very short order, and his loss triggered a frenzy as the Puffs descended on the Gryffindor team like the horde of angry badgers they were. None of the Gryffindor Chasers could keep the Quaffle for long before V or J showed up and appropriated it, the twins almost always had angry Beaters in their faces, and Diggory distracted Ginny at every possible opportunity - although Ginny, too, was put out by roN being gone.

The gap in the score climbed and climbed as J and V scored goal after goal, and Wood was starting to look like he was about to cry. The former DDs’ taunts didn’t help much either.

“Did you even try that time?” V yelled as her pass soared right under Wood's nose and into the hoop. 

“Eyes on the right Chaser, idiot!” J called out as she caught a pass from a feinting V and scored the far hoop. 

“Even Page could have caught that one!” V teased. 

“Aw, is the big bad sixth year about to cry?” J sneered as she scored another. 

“Pathetic,” V agreed, catching the dropped Quaffle and scoring again. “Think we could let the Gryffies try to score this time?” she asked as J caught the Quaffle. 

J thought for a moment. “Nah.” She scored again. 

“THE WEASLEY CHASER MUST'VE BEEN TRULY THIS TERRIBLE IF HUFFLEPUFF IS DOING BETTER WITHOUT HIM,” Jordan sneered. “WHAT, DID YOU KEEP HIM AROUND BECAUSE YOU FELT SORRY FOR-” 

That was as far as he got before Leanne hit a Bludger into him, which got Gryffindor awarded a penalty. For once, Crawley missed. 

“Gryffindor scores, 550 to 30 in Hufflepuff's favour,” McGonagall stated into the megaphone as Jordan was carted off the stands. 

During the penalty, Wood flew up to Diggory. “Look,” he muttered. “If both captains agree, the match is over... I forfeit. Just. Please, let us go.” He looked actually pained to admit it. 

Diggory just looked at him coldly. “No. The match continues until the Snitch is caught.” 

V grinned malevolently right below them. 

XD 

As the sun started to set, Diggory finally gave the Gryffindors mercy and stopped distracting Ginny, letting the other Seeker catch the Snitch. 

“Gryffindor has caught the Snitch,” McGonagall commented dryly. “Hufflepuff wins, 1150 to 200.” 

As the Hufflepuff portion of the stand raised their fists in solidarity, V spiraled down to the pathetic figures of the Gryffindor team. “Touch roN again,” she warned, “and next time, we’ll make this defeat look like a minor setback. Got it?”

She got fearful nods in return.

Chapter Text

V sat in the Hospital Wing at roN’s side each day as he healed. She felt kind of guilty, mostly for not spending all that much time with him this year, so she was making up for lost time. Something was bothering him, though, she could see it - so eventually, she asked why.

“I could hear Lee from here,” roN confessed. “You and J did so much better without me than you did with me... was he right? Am I just a load?”

V hugged him, carefully as to not hurt him. “You’re not a load. You’re just... not quite yet on our level, but that’s not your fault! That’s because of circumstances beyond your control. You’re still a far better Chaser than the Gryffindor trio. It’s just.. well..” She hesitated.

“...You and J are leagues above me,” roN finished the thought. “Because you have memories that I don’t have.”

“I... Not just because of that?” V offered. “We value you. Hell, the team values you, you’re our heart and soul!”

roN smiled, but it looked a little weak. “But aside from that, I’m a drag.”

“You’re not, ” V snarled, poking him in the chest. “You’re my friend, and nobody talks to my friends like that, got it? ”

roN snorted, his smile looking a little stronger now. “Got it.”

XD

On the first weekend of April, something strange happened.

V was just passing an older student practicing some kind of spell, before she got a nudge from the Solver. 

• Request to Admin: What spell is that?

...what?

She doubled back, bemused, and asked the other Hufflepuff.

“Hey. You. Upper-year.”

The girl looked up, confused, before settling into an annoyed expression. “Oh, it’s you. What do you want, Potter?”

“What spell is that?” V asked. “What's it do?”

The upper-year looked suspicious. “...It's the Confundus. Supposed to confuse the target. Why do you want to know?” 

“Good question,” V muttered. 

• Spell matrix recognised, analysed, named. Admin currently under spell influence. Excising... 

V suddenly rocked back as her mental faculties snapped into place. Her mouth twisted into a snarl. “Because some bastard has been confunding me,” she hissed. “Excuse me.” She marched off, fuming, even as the Solver sensed her agitation. 

“Who?” she hissed quietly. “And since when?” 

• Error: Spell matrix has degraded considerably. Exact date unknown. Based on matrix degradation, Admin has been under the influence for FIVE (5) months.

“No wonder I kept blabbing things,” V murmured, before realizing that she might not be alone and switching to Parseltongue. ~ And it could have been anyone, too. I have too many enemies in this castle.~

~Perhaps I could be of assistance?~ the by now familiar voice of the Serpent of Slytherin hissed from somewhere in the walls.

~Turns out I’ve been Confunded for nearly half a year,~ V hissed back. ~Some motherfucker has had me under mental influence and I didn’t notice until I saw someone practicing the spell.~

~Do you want me to take care of them?~ the Serpent hissed, sounding incensed. ~Whoever has been harming my little ones, they will PAY.~

~Okay first of all,~ V began, ~How about we cool it with the Petrifications for now, huh? Did you talk to Dumbledore yet?~

~Not yet,~ the Serpent confessed. ~My little one is afraid of him for some reason, and I won’t go see him until I find out why.~

~...Sensible,~ V allowed. ~Hey, are you allowed to roam without attacking anyone?~

~I am, yes,~ the Serpent confirmed. ~May I ask why you’re asking?~

~Some of my friends are in a complicated mess of a romance,~ V replied, rolling her eyes. ~Two of them are Speakers, so I was wondering if you had any romantic advice to give to them.~

~MORE little ones?!~ The Serpent sounded delighted. ~I can certainly do THAT! May I ask for details on the situation?~

~Well, first of all, they’re all girls,~ V began. ~J and Ginny both like Teresa. Teresa likes them back, but she’s confused, and her parents are full of toxic ideas she hasn’t yet unlearned, so they had a fallout. They’ve now had space from each other for a while, but now they’re dancing around each other...~

XD

Well, she'd spoken to the Serpent, and there had been no attacks since then, so V figured that the distraction had worked. Moreover, Ginny had shown up to give her a hug out of the blue, so that was probably related, too. So with that out of the way, and with J looking happier too, she was free to start on her next two problems: Quidditch, obviously, but also picking the electives for next year. 

She'd asked professor Sprout, and was told that no, she wasn't allowed to elect out of it, and had to choose at least two classes. So she was busy with that. 

Muggle Studies looked like it taught the wixen idea of Muggles. For a moment, V recalled Quirrell's former occupation as a Muggle Studies teacher, and the fact that he'd used Muggle explosives to his benefit, but she reasoned that the class probably didn't teach her how to use Muggle explosives. Or let her play with them, at any rate. That was a no. 

Study of Ancient Runes V hesitated at. On one hand, it looked like a language class, but on the other, her wings had glowing runes on them... Decorative or necessary, she didn't know, and was hesitant to sign up for the class only for it to turn out to be a language class. She put it in the maybe pile and looked on. 

Arithmancy was... math. Sure, why not. She liked math. That went into the yes pile. 

Next up, Care of Magical Creatures. On one hand, V doubted that there would be anything particularly interesting there, but there could be snakes... Oh fine, yes pile it is. 

And then, finally, Divination, and at that, V hesitated. She knew for a fact that Divination worked, because of the Star of Fate thing from last year, but... 

Oh fine. She put that, too, in the yes pile and got rid of the other two remaining ones. Three electives it was! 

She headed to professor Sprout to finish signing up. 

XD 

And then it was time for Hufflepuff’s final Quidditch match of the season, against Slytherin. Both teams were hovering over the centre of the pitch, sizing each other up. Diggory and Flint shook hands. Lizzy and Malfoy were playing with their Beater's Bats. V and roN were eyeing Warrington and Pucey. 

J waved at Teresa, who hesitantly waved back. Behind her, V mimed slitting her throat and mouthed, ‘no offence’. Teresa grinned. ‘none taken,’ she mouthed back. 

Madam Hooch released the balls, threw the Quaffle, and the match was on.

Immediately, there was bedlam. 

Bludgers flew everywhere, Slytherins were all over the place. J, V, and roN all managed a goal each, but then-

Teresa dove. There was a brief moment of confusion-

“AND THE MATCH IS OVER!” Jordan yelled in astonishment. “TERESA ELIOT HAS CAUGHT THE SNITCH IN THE FASTEST TIME I'VE EVER SEEN OR HEARD OF IN A HOGWARTS MATCH! SLYTHERIN WINS, 150 TO 30!” 

J, V, and roN blinked at each other in befuddlement. Then V snorted. “She saw what we did to the other two teams and didn't want anything to do with that,” she chortled. “Well, props to her. J, go congratulate her.” 

J blinked once more, before shaking it off. “Right. Right! Going!” She dove. 

V nudged roN, still grinning. “C'mon. Let's go change back. J can catch up.” 

“Coming!” 

Chapter Text

One Friday morning in late May, V found herself cornered by a nervous Ginny Weasley. “Hey,” she said quietly. “I... need help.”

“With your love life or something else?” V asked, finishing up the last of her breakfast. “Because if it’s the former, well...”

Ginny shook her head. “No, not that. I... There’s an artifact. A dangerous one.”

V paid full attention. “C’mon, let’s talk elsewhere.” She led Ginny out of the Hall and straight into a Parsel-activated secret passage, before focusing again on the smaller girl. “C’mon. Talk to me.”

Ginny wrung her hands. “I... in August, I discovered a diary amongst my things. I didn’t think much of it, until I tried to write in it and it wrote back.”

Well, that sounded concerning. Did diaries do that?

“What did it say?” V asked.

“It said its name was Tom Riddle,” Ginny replied quietly. “I thought it was just enchanted to be a friend so I wouldn’t be lonely, but when I got to Hogwarts I didn’t need it much, so I gave it to my friend Luna.”

“And you want me to get it back from her?” V guessed.

Ginny shook her head. “I asked her and she said it was stolen - Dad wrote to me asking about it, it’s apparently sentient and compels people to do things. If it was stolen from Luna, then a Ravenclaw maybe has it-” 

She looked panicky. “I told Dad I buried it somewhere so I could have time to look, but now I can’t find it and I think it’s what’s opening the Chamber of Secrets and it’s all my fault and...”

“Shh,” V whispered. “It’s okay. It’s fine. I can help you, okay?” She smirked. “I can Solve this, if you catch my drift.”

“Thank you,” Ginny whispered, giving V a quick hug and darting out of the passageway.

V huffed. “Tom Riddle. I’m pretty sure I’ve heard J mention that name... Oh, that’s right. It all comes back to that previous Slytherin muggleborn, doesn’t it?”

She smiled grimly. “Well then. Let’s go look for a diary, won’t we?”

XD

Well, finding the Ravenclaw common room was easy. Getting in, however...

“How is a raven like a writing desk?” the knocker asked her, and V stared in stupefaction. 

“...What kind of a fucking question is that?”

“Incorrect,” the knocker replied, and became still.

A painting harrumphed nearby. “You aren’t meant to be here, Hufflepuff. Away with ye!”

“Yeah, fuck this,” V decided, activating the Solver and teleporting past the door, startling quite a few Ravenclaws. “Don’t mind me,” she purred. “I have an Heir to find.” 

“...aren’t you the Heir?” someone demanded.

V considered that for a moment. “If I am, I’m here to find the pretender who attacks people in my name. If I’m not, I’m here to find the Heir. Either way, I’m off my ass and ready to put a stop to the attacks.”

“...Only now? ” someone else questioned incredulously.

“Yeah, I can’t go into third year with people thinking I committed crimes I haven’t,” V replied absentmindedly. “Any of you seen a small black book, by the way? Turns out a Dark Artifact is behind the attacks.”

“It’s a D-Dark Artifact?” someone stuttered. V zeroed in on them.

It was a mousy third-year who seemed to be rapidly paling. V flickered right in front of them. “What do you know?”

The girl’s eyes were rapidly flicking around. “I- I um. I may have stolen it from Loony? But it’s gone missing, and-”

“And?” V pressed on.

“...It spoke to me,” the Ravenclaw whispered, cowering. The students around her began whispering.

V exhaled. “So it could be anywhere by now. Fuck.” She activated the Solver for a room scan anyway, students yelping as yellow light passed over them. “Anything?” she murmured.

• Search results: Traces of possession magic detected. Dark presence recognised and analysed. Type: Horcrux. Assessment: Destroy on sight. Object not present in the area. 

V blanched. “Welp.” 

“What is it?” a random Ravenclaw asked fearfully. 

“Okay, it's not here,” V replied distractedly. “Any of you see even a hint of it, don't touch it, and get your Head of House or Dumbledore immediately. I have to go.”

She vanished in a [null] teleport, leaving behind a roomful of panicking Ravenclaws. 

XD 

V was in the middle of scanning for further traces of the artifact, which was a difficult ordeal given that the thing had apparently been absolutely everywhere , before she suddenly realised something. 

“Wait a minute. I can just talk to Dumbledore, he said his door was always open, didn't he?” 

She vanished from the hallway even as a voice was whispering faintly, ~I'm sorry, little one...~

...and reappeared in the middle of Dumbledore's office, before blinking at the amount of people shouting in surprise at her sudden appearance. 

“I say!” an older wix exclaimed. “Where did you come from, young lady?” 

“From the Charms corridor,” V deadpanned. “Where did you come from?” 

That left the wix blinking as V looked around, only now registering the amount of wixen in the room. “...Er, what's going on?” 

“The students are being attacked and no one is doing anything!” an older woman shouted. “The board of governors is asking the headmaster to... wait, who are you?” 

“V,” V replied. “V Potter. I'm currently in the process of doing something. What are you doing?”

“Ah, you see, miss Potter,” a familiar voice explained as Michel Malfoy emerged from the crowd, “now that there has been a triple attack and a Pureblood has been Petrified, the Board of Governors held a vote, and we've just finished evicting Dumbledore.” 

V swore. “Extraordinarily bad timing, Mr. Malfoy. Ffffffff... Wait, you're Ursa's dad. Do you know anything about Dark Artifacts?” 

Michel smiled gently, but it looked a bit strained. “My father was an... avid collector of them. I'm still finding the occasional item in the house that shouldn't be there, so I've become quite proficient with disposing of them. Why do you ask?” 

V made a face. “Are you familiar with a little black book that writes back?” 

Mr. Malfoy's face drained of all colour. “It... it's turned up? Here!?” 

“Mr Malfoy?” other Governors started asking. “Are you okay?” 

“I'm not,” Michel Malfoy muttered, still the colour of chalk. “It’s a very dangerous artifact that I had hoped was gone forever- Miss Potter, do you know where it is? Is that why you're here?” 

“It's loose in the castle somewhere,” V muttered. “Recently seen with the Ravenclaws, but not there anymore-” She stopped. “Wait, you said attack. There was an attack recently? Who? When? ” 

At that, the room became quiet as Mr. Malfoy looked uncomfortable. “Just an hour ago, Hermione Granger, Teresa Eliot, and Ginevra Weasley were found Petrified.” 

V blanched. “What? No, no no no... Fuck. I... I have to go. I have to...” She vanished mid-sentence. 

XD 

V reappeared in the Hospital Wing, startling Madam Pomfrey. “Sorry,” she muttered, “But I only just heard-” 

The matron's expression softened. “Of course, dear,” she said. “You may visit them.” 

She led V to the curtained-off area where the Petrification victims were kept, and V saw them. 

Ginny in a defensive pose, mouth open as she started to say something, J in a protective embrace around Teresa. She stared at them in shock. 

“Poor dears,” Madam Pomfrey said softly. 

V's eyes narrowed and she activated the Solver, scanning the frozen bodies of her friends. “Please tell me you have something,” she whispered. 

• Scan complete. Affliction determined: Petrification. Cause determined: indirect Basilisk gaze. Cure determined: Mandrake solution. Error: No Mandrake solution detected. 

“Professor Sprout says that this year's batch of Mandrakes are almost mature,” Madam Pomfrey said, probably thinking V was asking her. “They'll be all right in June-” 

“No they won't be,” V whispered in dawning horror. “Madam Pomfrey- I've discovered what's been petrifying them- it's a Basilisk.” 

The matron inhaled sharply. “A near-death experience. I see. I'll prepare Calming Draughts accordingly - thank you for telling me.” 

But V had already vanished. 

XD 

She was teleporting around the castle at speed, pausing and scanning for either the Horcrux or the Basilisk. However, there was a minor snag. 

• Warning: Host is running out of stored power. Refuel needed. 

“I don't have time for that,” V snarled, doubling her efforts. 

• Understood. Preparing alternative power methods. 

Outside, thunder started to rumble. 

At one point, V breezed past a startled roN, who called out something about a teacher, but V didn't listen and continued with her search. 

• Warning: Power nearly depleted. 

“Don't care, have to find it. Or them. Whatever. I don't have enough time.” 

She didn't have enough time in more than one way. On her next teleport, she collapsed, glitching. “No...” she whispered. “I must... I can still...” 

• Warning: Fuel stores depleted. Enacting emergency teleport. 

XD 

V reappeared on top of the Astronomy tower, collapsing on arrival. “I failed,” she whispered. “I wasn't strong enough.” 

• Absolute Solver can help. Admin permission needed. 

“Please,” V whispered as thunder rumbled around her. “Please help me...” 

She raised her hand, a symbol attempting to form and failing. 

• Very well. 

Something sparked on the tips of her fingers. Another spark in the clouds around her. And then it came, a bolt of lightning like a hammer of god. V screamed. 

• Error: Host body not strong enough. Enacting emergency transformation. 
• Activating Material-Collection Mode. Host reconfiguration in progress. Updating Admin permissions. 

Something from deep within V erupted even as lightning kept striking, over and over and over. Golden light shined from the Astronomy Tower, four words etching themselves into the stone all around her. 

• YOU ARE IN RANGE

Chapter Text

There was something in the walls of Hogwarts.

The castle felt it even as thunder roared outside, there was something new. Different.

Wrong.

It skittered and squirmed in the castle’s piping, strange eyes on stranger limbs peeking from various openings. 

In the kitchens, its elves prayed, but not to the castle. To something older, grander.

Wrong.

Coils of an elongated body stretched throughout the castle, searching for something. Searching for its guardian.

The castle sought the echoes of lives past, for one that could know what it could be that was so

Wrong.

The echo merely smiled and giggled, and the castle got no answers from there.

But one thing was clear: Something was truly, seriously...

Wrong.

XD

Low, clicking hisses echoed through the halls, making students and teachers alike stop and/or shiver. In the Headmaster's office, the Governors, or at least the ones still there, were startled even worse when something rose from the floor.

A spindly, skeletal arm topped with a strange, cylindrical head, the only feature a glowing yellow eye, covered in hazard patterns. Within the crowd, Michel Malfoy stiffened.

The eye looked at each of them in turn, before emitting a pulse of yellow light. Outside, thunder flashed again.

Suddenly, the arm extended with lightning speed, articulating at strange joints to look as if it were hanging from the ceiling instead, the eye focused on Mr. Malfoy.

“ Dark traces detected. ”

The voice that spoke was metallic and clipped, holding no accusation but also no patience. “ Traces are fading. You are not the target. No trace of target in room. ”

With lightning-speed, the arm retracted back into the floor and vanished.

Michel finally dared to exhale. He... hadn’t expected That to be around. This... wasn’t good.

XD

The Slytherin common room contained tense faces, for the most part, and some celebration from the dumber examples. The Quidditch team looked put out with them, Lizzy being especially incensed. “You’re idiots!” she yelled at the partiers. “What do you think will happen to you when V finds out?”

“Your little girlfriend won’t find shit! ” someone slurred. “Finally, our mudblood has been taken care of, and the other mudblood and blood traitor with her!”

Nobody noticed a cylindrical head poke out of the ceiling.

Without warning, V appeared in the middle of the Common Room, but she looked... off. She wasn’t wearing her usual Hogwarts robes, instead clad in a fur-collared leather jacket, a leotard under it, and thigh-high boots. Her sleeves extended into bell shapes, and she moved with an odd cadence.

Lizzy blinked at her. “...V?”

V flickered out and reappeared in front of her, causing both Lizzy and Malfoy to stumble back with a yelp. “In a manner of speaking.” Her expression shifted into a smile - no, not quite. It went from neutral to smiling in a fraction of a second without any movement in between. “Sorry. Biological functions are.... Hard, at the moment.”

“...V?” Lizzy repeated, now looking more concerned, before her eyes widened and she looked up, at the camera-eye. “Oh fuck.”

A second camera-eye poked out of the ceiling, followed by a third. Another V appeared next to the jacketed V, clad in a Hufflepuff uniform, causing several Slytherins to swear and scramble backwards. Uniformed V was followed by a child-shaped V, wearing a tiny shirt and skirt. The Vs looked around, before focusing on Lizzy. “Shapes are hard now, too,” child V said in normal V’s voice. “I hope it isn’t permanent,” jacketed V added in a child-like voice.

Normal V shook her head and smacked the other two V’s, dispersing them into particles. “I think this is the shape I was using,” she said, looking around the room as the rest of the Slytherins looked on with pale faces. 

V flickered in front of the Slytherin she had threatened when the year began. “Do you know anything about the attack.” She didn’t phrase it as a question.

The seventh-year sneered and waved a hand through V, snorting in disgust. “Don’t act tough now that you’ve figured out illusions, Potter,” he sneered. “Where are you really? ”

“ Up here. ”

As one, the Slytherins slowly looked up at the ceiling, before their faces completely drained of colour.

A veritable mass of limbs, joints, claws, coils, and eyes was clinging to the vaulted ceilings, only visible through the glow of the eye-cameras. A pair of eye-cameras slowly lowered from the mass, one open wide and pointed at the illusory V, the other narrowed, casting a yellow glow. A large claw dropped down and grabbed the arrogant seventh-year by the waist, lifting the struggling boy effortlessly into the air. The narrowed eye stared at him, narrowing further. “ I repeat myself. Do you know anything about the attack? ”

The Slytherin rapidly shook his head. “N-no! I don’t! I don’t know anything, oh Merlin, please, please don’t eat me, I swear, I don’t know anything-”

The claw threw him onto the ground, knocking the breath out of him. The illusory V flickered out as the eye-cameras focused on Lizzy. “ Does anyone know? ”

“Some idiots keep insisting that the Serpent is a Basilisk,” Lizzy reported. “Aside from that, no idea.”

Several claws descended. “ They are correct. Point them out to me. ”

Eyes widening in fear, Lizzy pointed at a pair of older girls. The claws picked them up.

“ Your names. And the source of your information, ” the Thing that might have been V demanded.

The girls gulped. “Flora Carrow.” “Hestia Carrow.”

No other information was forthcoming. Now, something else descended from the shadows.

It was an elongated human torso, ending in a segmented body at the bottom and with V’s head on top. A pair of thin arms emerged from her shoulders, topped with a long-fingered hand on one arm and a three-claw limb on the other, with the claws being at least three feet long and made of the same type of bone as the rest of her.

‘V’ tilted her head at them, her scar glowing with a golden light, and her eyes being like pools of molten gold. The hand rose, making a gesture, and a golden Translate bloomed over its palm. “Would you like for us to start rotating your bones? One by one? ”

“Our mother told us!” Flora Carrow screamed, staring at ‘V’ in pure horror. “The Basilisk would once again haunt the halls of Hogwarts, and this time it would kill more than just the one mudblood!”

‘V’ tilted her head the other way. “ This time? Who did it kill the last time?”

“T-the one who haunts the second floor bathroom!” Hestia added, struggling in vain. “I swear! That’s all we know!”

‘V’ regarded them quietly. “Fine.”

The twin girls were unceremoniously dropped as everything rose back up into the writhing mass of the ceiling. When someone finally dared to look up again, the mass was gone.

XD

Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom was usually deserted, because its resident ghost didn’t like people, and did everything in her power to chase them away so that she could wallow in the misery of her death.

Today, however, the door creaked open and a girl walked in. A more informed viewer would recognise her as looking just like Teresa Eliot, but Myrtle hadn’t met Teresa Eliot. As such, when she rose through the floor to wave away uninvited visitors, she just thought there was a lost firstie in Her space. “And what are you doing here?” she asked accusingly.

The girl looked at her. She opened her mouth, closed it, and flickered faintly. “How did you die?” she asked.

“...how did you ask that with your mouth shut?” Myrtle countered.

The girl flickered, being replaced by a different girl. Myrtle blinked. “...and how did you do that? ”

“It is an illusion, ” the voice replied, the girl flickering forward. “You did not answer our question.”

“I... Oh, it was dreadful, ” Myrtle replied, always glad for an audience for that specific story. “I was in that stall over there-” she pointed - “crying my eyes out because Olive Hornby had made fun of my glasses again, and then I heard a boy come into the bathroom! He was talking in a weird language, so I opened the stall door to tell him to fuck off, but all I saw was a pair of great big yellow eyes and I just... died! Dropped dead on the spot!”

“ Parseltongue, ” the illusory girl replied. “Of course... Pipelines. There is an emergence here. I must go.”

She vanished. Myrtle thought she could see something skeletal for a moment, before shrugging. At least the stranger was gone, and she could go back to wallowing! Now, where was she? Ah yes... Loneliness, crawling in her skin. 

XD

Tom Riddle walked his host forward. He almost had her now! Just a little bit more time in the Chamber, and the girl’s life force would be his! But first, she, er, he had to get there! Blast, he’d been in the girl so long he was starting to think like her. But he couldn’t have that!

And while he was in the Chamber, he might as well finally take care of that damnable Potter for distracting his Basilisk. His! But no, he had to suffer weeks of that beast just gushing and gushing about that damnable love triangle Potter had distracted her with. It got so bad that he’d finally just told it to shut up and go petrify those lovestruck fools already!

Petrify, but not kill. Last time, he’d had her off her leash and gotten careless, and Hogwarts had almost shut down! He couldn’t have that, not this time. All he required was just enough time for him to rise again.

He hissed the password at the bathroom entrance and slid down the pipe. Soon... so very soon.

Something slithered nearby. Oh, no, had the beast been roaming again? He had to take care of that little hurdle, too. At least his charms had held from the last time.

~Open,~ he hissed to the main Chamber door, and watched in satisfaction as the intertwining snakes unwound. He never got tired of that sight.

The Heir of Slytherin strutted into his Chamber and stopped short. Someone was there already. Potter! She was standing in the middle of the Chamber, arms crossed. Something was slithering behind her.

Tom snarled in the privacy of his mind at the unfortunate discovery, before adopting his host’s airy mannerisms. “Hello, Violet Potter,” she observed. “How did you get here?”

“The better question would be. How did you get here? ”

...Something was wrong. Potter’s voice had an undertone to it, something metallic, something Other. “I walked, of course.”

There was a flash of yellow light, and Tom recoiled. “What- why did you do that!?”

“ So that I could determine if you were the Horcrux, ” Potter replied in that Other voice, and Tom froze. She knew? How??

“W-what is that?” Tom tried.

Potter’s face went from a frown to a wide grin with no movements in between, before she dissolved into what looked like... static? A flickering fog? Whatever was slithering behind her came forward, and Tom stilled. That... was not his Basilisk.

It looked like a cross between a millipede and a very long snake, topped with a humanlike torso, its body writhing with thousands and thousands of legs, various limbs emerging from its extremely long back. Tom took several steps back. What... what abomination was that?!

The Thing raised an arm, a golden symbol appearing above it, before Tom’s diary was ripped from his host’s hands and came to a hover in front of the Thing, surrounded with that same yellow symbol.

“So your host was Luna Lovegood after all,” the Thing mused with Potter’s voice, something Other still audible underneath. “I suppose you simply made her lie when Ginny asked for you back?”

“You’re still no match for my Basilisk!” Tom shouted at the Thing. ~Speak to me, Greatest of the Hogwarts Four!~

~I am disappointed with you, little one,~ a disapproving voice sounded, and Tom stilled once again. That- No!

~I was put here to PROTECT the school, not to become something it needed protecting FROM,~ HIS Basilisk scolded, sounding rather furious with him. ~At least this little one recognised that you had me under your spell and undid it.~

“Like a tumor , we excised it,” the Thing said, holding the Diary aloft. “Like we are about to excise you. ” Something appeared over the Thing’s hand. A small, black ball edged in gold, with writing inside. “Farewell, Tom Riddle.”

The diary met the ball as Tom watched helplessly. There was a sharp, agonizing pain, and Tom Riddle was no more.

Chapter Text

V coughed and heaved as she crawled out of the husk of Material Collection Mode. That had been... a singularly unpleasant experience, and if she was honest with herself, and she made a silent vow to never again run out of fuel again. She sent a [NULL] to clean it up and return all the extended biomass to emergency storage, even as she half-walked, half-dragged herself to where Luna Lovegood had collapsed.

~Hey,~ she hissed faintly as to not strain her throat. ~You okay?~

Lovegood stirred, before bolting upright, looking around with a wide-eyed gaze. ~Who’s there?~

~Right here,~ V replied, deciding to lay down for a bit. ~Don’t worry, Riddle is dead. You’re free.~

~...Oh,~ Lovegood replied sadly. ~I know he was evil, but... being with him was almost like having a friend.~

Well, that was an easy enough problem to solve. ~I can be your friend,~ V offered. ~I don’t have a problem with having friends from other Houses.~

Lovegood looked straight at her, seemingly for the first time. ~A FRIEND? Really? Will you really be my friend? ~

V shrugged, but she was smiling a little. ~Sure.~

~Forgive me if this seems a little blunt,~ the Basilisk asked from nearby, giving both girls a start. ~But do either of you happen to have a mother?~

V blinked up at it. ~Uh. No?~

~My mummy’s dead too,~ Lovegood volunteered. ~Why do you ask, miss Basilisk?~

At that question, the enormous snake looked a little bashful. ~I have been watching you little ones for more or less the entire school year,~ she replied. ~You seem like very lovely if very lonely little ones, and I would like to adopt you.~

That left V blinking in astonishment, with Lovegood simply staring at the snake.

~It’s all right if you say-~ the basilisk began, but Lovegood cut her off.

~Yes.~ The girl stared up at the snake, looking extremely serious. ~Yes, you may adopt me, but I will always remember my Mummy, okay?~

~...Of course,~ the Basilisk replied softly.

V was still blinking. ~...I’m sorry,~ she finally managed, ~but... you want me?~  

The Basilisk looked over, and she hurried to explain. ~I mean. You want me? Why? I’m... I’m a sociopath. A menace. People don’t just want me. I’m just something to be discarded-~

~No you’re not!~ Lovegood exclaimed.

You will not be discarded, the Solver chimed in.

~Of course I want you, little one,~ the Basilisk hissed softly. ~I am old enough, powerful enough, and wise enough to not offer where I shouldn’t. I wouldn’t have asked you if I didn’t want you as my little snakeling.~

V looked away, abashed, well aware that she was blushing. ~’m a kitten,~ she muttered.

~My little catling, then,~ the Basilisk amended.

XD

The duo of newly-minted sisters spent quite a bit of time simply talking with the Basilisk, getting to know her. It seemed that while the Basilisk was a bit old-fashioned in some aspects, she was very knowledgeable in others.

And then was the shocker.

~I have seen your strange golden magic before, catling,~ the Basilisk hissed thoughtfully. ~Rowena’s daughter possessed this ability, too. I met her when I was but a hatchling, and yet she greeted me with excitement and told me that her friends had told her all about me, and that she could not wait to see me big and strong.~ The old snake was silent for a moment. ~She died at only fifteen summers, I’m told, so she never could. But sometimes I wonder who her friends were.~

~She Spoke, too?~ Lovegood - er, Luna - asked curiously. ~We’re taught that Parseltongue was a Salazar-only art among the Founders...~

The Basilisk shook her head, letting out a laughing hiss. ~Oh, no, not at all, little ones! It was an incredibly common talent amongst the Celtic tribes - Salazar and his friends could all Speak, and so could all their children.~

~Hah!~ was V’s reaction. ~I did tell everyone that it can’t be as rare as painted!~

~I am unfamiliar with this turn of phrase,~ the Basilisk spoke curiously. ~What does it mean, rare as painted?~

~It’s from the phrase ‘black as painted’,~ Lovegood answered serenely. ~It means, ‘as malicious as everyone believes it to be’. So logically, V’s turn of phrase would mean ‘as rare as everyone believes it to be’.~ She blinked innocently at the curious gazes of the other two. ~My daddy is a journalist, you know. It means that he tells people what is happening in the world.~

~A noble profession,~ the Basilisk nodded. ~But I suspect it is getting late, and you little ones need to return to the castle. Do you want me to give you a ride up the entrance pipe?~

Expression gaining a moment of brief glee, V shook her head. ~Can we do that next time? I wanna see if my wings can carry Luna’s weight, too!~

The Basilisk blinked a few times. ~...Wings?~

XD

V whooped in glee as she soared up the twisting, massive pipe, with Luna letting out smaller cheers in her arms. Spotting the closely approaching end of the pipe, V winked at her sister and flew faster, hissing out an ~Open~ on approach. The sinks moved out of the way, leaving V to fly out at a loop-de-loop and land on the bathroom floor, badly startling the room’s resident ghost. “Where did you come from!” she shrieked.

“The pipes,” Luna replied serenely. “Hello, Myrtle.”

Myrtle blinked. “Oh, it’s just you. Hey, Lovegood.”

“Friend of yours?” V asked lightly, settling Luna back onto her own two feet and stowing her wings. 

“She’s not as annoying as the rest of you,” Myrtle replied. “Bite me.”

“Can’t bite ghosts,” V replied, smirking, “or I’d take you up on that.”

Myrtle blinked up at her. “...Okay?”

“Right,” V decided. “To the common rooms! Or, no, wait. We should probably check in with Madam Pomfrey. To the Hospital Wing!”

Luna giggled at that. “To the Hospital Wing,” she agreed.

“Then get going!” Myrtle called out, pouting at the pair’s retreating backs.

XD

“Miss Potter! Miss Lovegood!” the matron exclaimed as the duo traipsed through the Hospital Wing doors, tired and filthy. “Where on Earth have the two of you been?!”

“Got adopted,” V replied happily, skipping over and giving Madam Pomfrey a quick hug, before darting to the nearest bed and hopping onto it. “In related news, the attacks will stop, and the Heir is taken care of.”

The shocked matron looked between the two of them, eyes wide. “ Adopted?! By who? ”

“By the Serpent of Slytherin,” Luna replied happily, climbing onto V’s bed. “She really is quite lovely when she’s not being controlled by Tom Riddle.”

“...did you just say Tom Riddle? ” Madam Pomfrey asked carefully. 

“He was in a dark artifact that I’ve since destroyed,” V replied. “Why, who is he?”

The matron eyed her. “You Know Who,” she replied meaningfully.

V digested that. 

“Again!?”

Chapter Text

V was napping lightly, still in the Hospital Wing, when a weight appeared on her bed. She blinked blearily at it, seeing something roN-shaped, so she shrugged and dragged him into a hug. “S’okay,” she muttered. “I’m okay. You can sleep here.”

She was dozing off again when she heard roN murmur back, “Thank you, nice girl.”

...That was weird. She blinked her eyes open, looking into roN’s wide open eyes that watched her curiously. There was no recognition in them.

...wait, WHAT!?

Instantly, V was awake, looking over roN in alarm. She registered madam Pomfrey in the room, watching over them with sadness, as well as Luna, who had sat up and was rubbing her eyes.

“roN?” V asked urgently. “Are you okay?”

The boy blinked at her. “Who are you?”

Instantly, V’s Solver was active and in Scan Mode, checking him over. “I’m V,” she replied, hoping that her voice wasn’t shaking. What had happened? He was just fine earlier!

• Scan complete. Traces of the Obliviation Charm found. Warning: Caster signature matches a signature on file.

“It’s nice to meet you, V,” roN replied cheerfully. “I think I forgot who I am, but that’s okay, the nice lady says I could remember eventually!”

“What happened!?” V addressed madam Pomfrey. “Why is he- who-”

“He was found wandering the halls this morning,” the matron replied sadly. “I’m waiting on an expert from St. Mungo’s to look him over, but...” She made a face.

“It’s okay, you feel safe,” roN assured V. “The nice lady said I could say hello. Your hug is nice.” He tilted his head. “...why are you crying?”

“...it happens sometimes,” V offered, touching her face and realizing she had tears streaming down her cheeks. “You’ll be okay, roN.” Solver? she asked in her mind.

• Regret: Admin: V does not have expertise in memory recovery. Suggestion: Contact Temporary User: DarkxWolf17 for expertise.

“Uzi,” V breathed. She looked over at the matron, who was tending to the Petrified. “Madam Pomfrey! Uziella Tonks! She can help! Please, can you contact her?”

Madam Pomfrey looked over, blinking. “Miss Tonks? She knows about minds?”

“She’s done it before,” V replied, admittedly not liking the idea, but seeing no other option. “She- I know she can- Madam Pomfrey, please! ”

“You don’t need to cry,” roN soothed, even as the matron gave her a long look. “I’ll be fine, you’ll see!”

Madam Pomfrey gave V a long, hard look.

“...I can call her. But I will have the final say on any procedure.”

“Of course,” V whispered.

XD

“Okay, what the hell happened?” Uzi demanded, stalking through the doors of the Hospital Wing. “Your last letter was in March, I’ve been busy with all that, and now I’m contacted by Poppy Pomfrey of all people over-”