Violet Potter and the Basilisk Plague (Year Two)

Chapter One: An Unexpected Invitation To The Burrow

July 31st, 1992

Emily Spencer of Nettleship Moors might have managed to find a place to not only work, but to live in the Wizarding World, and in fact, she had for a brief time while she was on internship at St. Mungo's. She had been sharing a flat with two other friends from her Hogwarts years. Not Lily and James Potter, but two other girls who were also in Hufflepuff House.

For a brief and blissful period, Emily could still remember, the three of them, Emily, Myra Branson, and Elsie MacEwen were certain that they had never felt so liberated, free at last from having to live under the rules and constraints of their parents, and as divinely magical a place as Hogwarts generally was, it was still happy farewell and good riddance to the less pleasent aspects of school life, certain Slytherins and teachers in particular.

Not to mention, that Peter Pettigrew used to kind of give Emily the feeling he could be quite annoying and even creepy, with all his ceaseless pursuing of her, his complaining and expectations that certain things should be going his way instead of working out better for people like James, Sirius, and Remus. As far as Peter was concerned, they always had far greater flaws than he ever did, and yet he could be so unbelievably childish, even worse than James Potter when he was at his most juvenile behaviour, not to mention cowardly and rather clueless. There was just no way they could ever have gotten on as a couple. It was difficult for so many to understand how he was even in Gryffindor, let alone in with the Marauders. But even Peter, so it had seemed, didn't deserve his brutal fate.

And very soon, things did get brutal for so many, even more so than ever before. Lord Voldemort, a terrible blight on the Wizarding World quite like none other since the shocking, history-changing crimes of Gellert Grindelwald, was gaining ever more loyal followers, and even more power.

All the most depraved and monstrous dregs of British wizarding society eagerly joined his side. Many others were forced into doing so against their own free will by means of the Dark Arts and curses most unforgiveable. The Ministry of Magic was frantic, no one really knew one hundred percent who could be trusted.

Lily and James were married, and for a time, they were about as happy and completely in love with each other as all young lovers should be. They brought two children of their own into the world. Violet was named Violet because Lily had long thought it was a very pretty name, and Lily, as her own mother did with Lily and Petunia, wanted to carry on with naming her own children after different flowers were she to have any girls. And they named their son Harry, at least partly because Lily's sister Petunia and her sister's horrid husband considered the name to be much too common for their tastes. But mostly, Emily was certain, because James and Lily probably came to the agreement that the name just fit in some way.

But their happiness was not to last. Lord Voldemort had decided to target the Potters in his next evil act of vengeance against all those who defied and fought against him. They went into hiding in a cozy cottage in Godric's Hollow, which had been the very place Lily and James had sought to settle down and start a family in.

And then, the very worst thing that could have happened to the Potters (short of losing Harry and Violet as well of course) came to pass. Someone close to them had betrayed them, and Voldemort himself attacked. It had often been said that Pyrus Maynard and even Bellatrix Lestrange, one of the most frighteningly unstable dark witches most would hope never to meet, had longed for the disgusting dishonour of being able to kill the Potters themselves.

But Voldemort had no desire to allow even the most loyal and ruthless among his followers to carry out this particular mission, for Lord Voldemort knew it was different this time. There was a possibility that both Potter children might someday pose a danger to his very existence. They all had to die by his hand. And that idiot blood traitor James Potter and his filthy and useless muggle-born wife fell quickly enough by his wand. It was all too easy, so he thought.

What Voldemort never once imagined was that Lily, (whom he had actually laughed at mockingly as she pleaded for him to spare her children and even coldly called a stupid girl before he murdered her), had thought of everything years before the one who loved to boast he was the greatest sorcerer in the world had even heard a single whisper about a prophecy spelling his impending doom by anyone with the name of Potter.

Before she had even married James Potter, Lily Evans, as she was known back then, had studied extensively one of the most ancient and deep laws of magic regarding love and self-sacrifice to protect others, unknown even to most people who knew her well.

The result was that when Voldemort tried to kill Harry as a baby, the curse rebounded and very nearly destroyed him. If it hadn't been for a long kept secret of this particular dark wizard, it really might have been enough to finish him off. But not for nothing did the prophecy about the Potter twins exist. Harry Potter would one day have to face and battle Voldemort, and his sister, Violet, would be the second hope for all wizardkind. Because of all of this, both Potter twins, Harry and Violet, had to grow separated from each other, only meeting for the first time in their lives  in the ten years since at the beginning of their first year at Hogwarts. A school year that was anything but boring.

Victoria Maynard, Violet's best friend, was now living with distant relatives from her mother's family who were staunchly anti-Voldemort, and Pyrus Maynard was serving a life sentence in Azkaban Prison for the murder of his wife, the illegal practice of the Dark Arts, and attempted kidnapping of his daughter near the end of the last school year. Thanks largely to Violet Potter figuring out in a very short time just what to do, Pyrus Maynard was captured, Tori was rescued, and Violet received a very special award for it all. And Victoria was adopted to live with Eloise Cresswell, who was a third cousin of her mother's, and her husband, Herbert Cresswell in Nottingham.

In September, both girls would begin their second year at Hogwarts. With Pyrus Maynard in prison, Quirinus Quirrel dead, and what remained of Voldemort vanished once again, Violet was hoping her second year might be at least a little less fraught with danger than the first. Especially ever since the 'talking to,' she had gotten from Emily and Mr. and Mrs. Spencer when she returned home for summer holiday. The fact that Violet did win the Chalice of Steadfast Heart and passed most of her classes were the only reasons the elder Spencers decided not to pull Violet out of Hogwarts in the first place.

That, and Emily had reminded her mother and father that Violet's education was extremely important, and it wouldn't be practical or right to try sending Violet to another non-magic school when Violet was a young witch, not a muggle, and just couldn't fit in or make many friends before Hogwarts, try as hard as she might. There was also the Prophecy of the Potters, but Forsythe and Angela Spencer weren't to know anything about that.

For the time being, Violet Potter was also not to know about the prophecy yet. That day would come in due time.
For now, Violet was reading a letter that had come for her along with her owl, Eros, who now had his very own outdoor 'owlery' constructed at the request of Forsythe Spencer while Violet was still in school. And Violet was left very excited about it.

The letter was written by Mrs. Weasley, Ron's mother, and it had turned out that Violet was to be invited to spend the last month of summer with them before the new school year. Harry was also supposed to come but nobody at the Burrow had heard back from him as of yet. Violet frowned as she read that bit of news.

"Whatever is the matter Violet?" Mrs. Spencer asked the raven-haired girl. And Violet said, "The Weasleys didn't get any letters or news, nothing from Harry, and neither did I really. I hope that aunt and uncle of ours haven't been keeping him locked up again and stopping him writing, I could---"

"Now Violet, it is not for any of us to decide what to do with the Dursleys. I'm sure the Weasleys will find a way to rescue Harry and take him back to the Burrow if need be." Emily said with a stern warning look at her goddaughter. "Why don't you continue to read the letter. How do they expect you to get over there?"

Violet read the instructions. "They expect me to travel by Floo Network."