AU

2. Harrison

Minor cussing warning for this one. Just one word.

"Do you two attend Hogwarts?" Dumbledore asked Violet and I as Clara had already made it clear that she was not allowed to go to Hogwarts.
I nodded while Violet replied with a straightforward "Yes." Dumbledore nodded.
"Then we'll just add you to the student body until you can get home."
"Albus," McGonagall protested. She looked the same as she always did, even the same robes. Was her aesthetic made possible by having one of the same robes for every day of the week?
"The children are bound to notice that they suddenly appeared, and once they leave, won't people start asking questions?" She asked. She had a point. I looked back at Dumbledore for his response.
"Students transfer schools all the time." He shrugged. His grey beard was tied in a band at the bottom, I noticed.
"Look, old man," Violet started. When several professors started complaining about the words "old man" she rolled her eyes. "That's tame for me, Dumbledore in my reality is chill so y'all need to pipe down." She turned back to the headmaster. "As much as I loathe to admit it, Professor McGonagall is right. Especially being that I am in Slytherin, I know for a fact that the students will wonder where I came from and why and when I leave, they will question people outside of school. No one will have heard of me and they will be angry because they will know we all lied." Violet explained.
"Then we come up with a good cover story." Dumbledore decided.
I snorted. Dumbledore in this reality was much like a regular old wizard, and quite idiotic compared to the diabolical, evil bastard that was the headmaster in my reality.
"Is there something you would like to add, Mr. Potter?" Sprout, speaking for the first time, asked.
"I was just thinking," I said slowly. I wasn't about to have the professors hate me before we even started school. "The Headmaster is so different here compared to home."
"How so?" Clara asked from two beds over.
"Well, in my reality Dumbledore is incredibly smart, but also a terrible person. He manipulates from behind closed doors and pulls the strings to bend the ministry to his will. Compared to the Dark Lord of that reality, Dumbledore is Satan. This Dumbledore is a regular man compared to the Dumbledore I'm used to." I told them. They all watched me worriedly.
"Are you a Slytherin, too." Violet asked me. I nodded.
"Thought so." Violet said. "You act like a Slytherin."
"You act like a reserved Ravenclaw, so I don't know if that's actually a compliment."
"It's not. It's an observation." Violet corrected, not even acknowledging the minor insult.
"Alright children," Madame Pomfrey appeared from nowhere. "That's enough." She waved her wand over each of us in turn, pausing over Violet.
"You've had contact with a teleportation potion. Something went wrong in the brewing and burned you pretty bad."
"Poppy," Snape spoke up before anyone else did. "She's thirteen, there's no way she could have-"
"Of course!" Violet interrupted him. "I must have accidentally brewed it!"
"How?" Snape asked, obviously annoyed.
"I was making a Dreamless Sleep potion when it turned blindingly white in the middle of brewing. Then bubbles started rising out of it and attaching to me. Neither of my parents seemed to know what it was, though Dad could have just been trying to convince himself it was something else since teleportation potions haven't been used since apparation become more mainstream. It is possible that since it was accidental the potion somehow changed and transported me here." Violet explained. "But that would mean that the only way to return would be to remake the potion, which is near impossible as the original potion isn't meant to traverse dimensions, meaning I would need the help of a Potions Master to even attempt it." She smiled sweetly at Snape and he glared at her.
"A wonderful idea, Miss Snape, you will help her, Severus?" Pomfrey asked Snape. She phrased it like a question but it was clear that it was not optional. Snape didn't respond and the healer waved her wand over me, then drew back sharply.
"Mr. Potter! Where do you live over the summers?"
"With my uncle and aunt." I told her.
"How long have they been abusing you?"
"Abusing?" I asked. Alarms rang in my ears. It'll get worse if she tells anyone. "They don't abuse me."
"Mr. Potter, I can read everything they've ever done simply from this spell."
Shit.
"There's nothing wrong!" I hissed, looking up at her sharply.
"Potter!" Violet said acidicly. Clara and I both froze. Violet pursed her lips at me. "You're only proving her assumption."
"What?"
"Signs of abuse: getting defensive when it's mentioned, blocking of emotions, self-hate, anxiety, excessive quietness, flinching at sudden movement and touches, desire to be alone, aggressive behaviors, pushing other people away." Violet recited a if she was reading it off a list. I scowled at her.
Pomfrey studied me for a long several minutes before going into her office.
"They're going to stay in the Slytherin dorms, right?" Clara asked. It was strange to think about, but in another life, Clara was my little sister. I looked down at my hands, clutching the bedsheets. A sister.
"Yes, why?" McGonagall asked.
"Where will I stay?"
She didn't go to Hogwarts. She wouldn't have a dorm to stay in. Why wouldn't someone want their kids to go to Hogwarts? It was the safest place in Britain. Even if Voldemort was at large, he couldn't get Hogwarts, right?
"You'll have to be sorted!" Dumbledore decided. He stroked his beard happily.
"Albums, should we really have her in school here if she can't go to school in her reality?" McGonagall asked. Clara, who'd looked overjoyed at the promise of a temporary stay at Hogwarts, looked crestfallen.
"Of course, Minerva." Dumbledore confirmed.
"Where else would she even stay?" Sprout asked. It was more of a rhetorical question than an actual question.
"So," Violet said once everyone had been silent for several awkward minutes. "When do I start that potion?"
"As soon as you're all settled in your dorms." Dumbledore told her cheerfully. Snape sneered at Violet and left the room, his cloak billowing out behind him. Violet didn't seem phased, she just nodded to herself and then frowned. "We don't have anything with us."
"Hogwarts will provide anything you need." McGongall said.
"Hogwarts the castle or Hogwarts the staff?" Violet asked.
"Whichever is necessary at the moment." Cane the response.
Violet nodded again, muttered to herself quietly, and then opened a drawer in the table beside her bed. "I love magic." She said quietly, taking out a muggle composition notebook and a ball-point pen from the drawer.
"What's that?" I asked her.
"My potions notes." She replied. She flipped through the book. I leaned back onto the pillow. Would that work for me?
"We should get Miss Potter sorted, then you may relax." Dumbledore said, his eyes twinkling almost as brightly as his robes were colored. I rolled my eyes and stood with much more ease than Violet did. SHe was clutching the notebook but having a hard time standing on her own. Clara stumbled but jogged after the Professors, who followed Dumbledore. I scowled. How irresponsible. Gently, I hooked an arm beneath Violet's shoulders and helped her out of the infirmary. She muttered that she was fine several times but didn't even attempt to pull away.
She was small but surprisingly strong. Her arm shook with the effort to hold onto me, but was able to mostly hold herself up. It wasn't difficult as she wasn't short.
We arrived at the headmaster's office just as the gargoyle jumped aside to let everyone through. Getting Violet up the stairs was a chore, but we made it. She took one of the two open seats across from Dumbledore at his desk. I gestured for Clara to sit in the other open seat and she did so slowly, as if I would change my mind.
Violet pulled her long dark hair over her shoulder and revealed several piercings in her left ear that had been hidden. I noted that and looked up as McGonagall approached with the Sorting Hat. She placed it on top of Clara's head and the unofficial sorting began.

1394 words
3/31/2020

This was written at varying hours of the night so I apologize for any improper grammar.