4th September, 1992
Violet wanted nothing more than to sleep in Friday morning. She had Astronomy until midnight with the Gryffindors the previous night, and didn't make it to bed until nearly an hour later. Despite her disdain for Professor Lockhart, and how boring she found History of Magic, Astronomy was her most hated class.
She didn't think she'd ever need to use it in her daily life, and it wasn't fair that students were forced to stay up so late then have early morning classes the following day. Everyone could see how exhausted the students were the mornings after Astronomy, so some of the professors took pity and went easy on the students whenever they had the first class of the day. Naturally, Professor Lockhart was not one of said professors.
Violet and her friends were quiet throughout breakfast, trying to rub the sleep from their eyes long enough to eat something to get them through the morning. Worse yet, their first class of the day was Defense Against the Dark Arts. Which meant an hour of listening to Lockhart teach about himself and all the girls sigh dreamily at him.
All Violet wanted was a quiet morning. So when she got to class and sat down without any harassment from the Slytherins, she was immediately suspicious.
"Hey..." She looked around the room, turning to Aimee and Hannah, "Where are all the Slytherins?"
"What do you-" Hannah paused, looking up to notice the half empty room, "Odd. None of them are here?"
With only three minutes to the start of class, Violet couldn't think of a single reasonable explanation. She stared at the door, glancing frequently to the clock. Only at the very last second did the Slytherin second-years walk in, looking as if nothing were amiss. Which, to Violet, meant something bad had happened, or would be happening at some point.
She narrowed her eyes as she caught sight of Draco Malfoy, who was wearing that evil smirk of his as he sat at his desk. He made a show of dropping his bag onto the table, pulling out his things, then turning to look at her. His smirk widened as he waved his fingers at her. Her expression didn't change until he looked away. She dropped her gaze to her hands, which were clenched on the table.
"Whatever they did, best we stay out of it." Aimee warned her friends, also having noticed Malfoy's behavior.
Neither Hannah or Violet disagreed.
Class went on as normal, Lockhart taking the entire hour to discuss how he had defeated the Bandon Banshee, referencing his book "Break with a Banshee" every chance he got. Violet decided then that she wouldn't read any of his books, especially if he was just going to discuss them in such great length in class all year.
By the time lunch rolled around two hours later, Violet was tempted to skip the meal and take a nap. She had double-Transfiguration directly after, which was always an entertaining class, but it was nearly three hours long and would require intense concentration, as they were working on turning beetles into buttons, and she was having a difficult time with it.
Her friends dragged her to lunch, but she didn't put up much up a fight. She hadn't eaten much at breakfast and was famished. Plus, as she'd soon find out, she would finally learn what trouble the Slytherins had gotten into.
As she was having a conversation with Cedric about the dancing feet charm the second-years had been introduced to in Charms that morning, a loud commotion turned the attention of everyone in the Great Hall to the entrance of the room.
Several first-year students came running in, a mixture of Hufflepuffs, Ravenclaws, and Gryffindors shouting and running towards the back of the hall. Even over the shouting, the entire Slytherin table could be heard laughing.
As the first-years got closer, Violet realized they were covered in some sort of shiny substance.
"What the-" Violet flinched back when a student knocked into her, leaving a trail of the sticky substance on her cloak.
Cedric leaned towards her, lifted her sleeve to his nose. His nose wrinkled as he scrunched his face together, "Flobberworm mucus. It's used it potions as a thickener. Why are they covered in this stuff?"
"Slytherins." Several people around them spoke, including Violet.
"That must be why they were late to class this morning, they were setting up a... prank?" Aimee hesitated to call it a prank, as they didn't really know how the first-years had come to be covered in the stuff.
"I'm sure they think they're brilliant, don't they? Picking on the first-years." Violet rolled her eyes in a huff. In the corner of her eye, she noticed a lone first-year still standing by the door. Luna Lovegood, she realized. She was standing with that far away look, as if she didn't even notice the mucus covering her hair and clothes.
"Excuse me." Violet grabbed her bag and rushed to the girl, stopping in front of her, "Hey, you alright?"
"Hm?" Luna's attention turned to Violet, though her eyes were barely focused, "Oh, yes. I'm not sure what this is..." She looked down at herself, "It's rather sticky. I need to shower, but I thought a bit of lunch might be nice."
Luna didn't move, staying in the doorway.
"Why don't I bring you something? Do you want anything specific?"
"Oh, anything will do."
Violet nodded then rushed back to her table. She took a clean plate and piled it with food, ignoring her friends' questioning gazes, then went back to Luna, who still hadn't moved.
"C'mon, I'll carry this for you. Where's the Ravenclaw common room?"
"It's upstairs. I can take that-" Luna reached for the plate, but Violet only pulled it closer to her chest.
"Nonsense. You'll get cleaned up then eat. Now c'mon, I've got half an hour until my next class starts, that's plenty of time."
Luna seemed to hesitate for a moment, then turned slowly to start up the stairs. They walked up another flight of stairs before entering what Luna referred to as "Ravenclaw Tower".
Luna told Violet several facts about it, including that it was one of three of the tallest towers at Hogwarts, and that the bronze Eagle on the entrance door required a correctly answered riddle to allow access.
When they finally reached the top of the spiral staircase, Violet sat on the first couch she saw.
"That's so many stairs!" She exclaimed, setting the plate still laden with food on the table and dropping her bag on the floor. Then she looked up, her eyes widening in awe. Luna had already disappeared, presumably to the shower, so Violet took her time moving around the Ravenclaw common room.
The room was located at the top of the tower, so it was round in shape, with a domed ceiling. Looking through the windows, it was possible to see the Great Lake, the herbology greenhouse, the quidditch pitch, and the forbidden forest.
The domed ceiling was painted the houses' royal blue, with gold and silver stars painted across it. The grey stone floor had a rug covering most of it, the rug also royal blue with different astrology signs and symbols on it. Banners with the house crest hung from stone beams across the ceiling, along with a rather large candle-lit chandelier. There were only a couple of chairs, tables, and couches, but there were still books and random items strewn around the room.
Violet ended her little self-tour in front of the giant ceramic statue of Rowena Ravenclaw. Despite the stone, the statue was extraordinarily detailed. She wore her hair in twin braids, which nearly fell to her knees, carried a book in her hand, wore a long, sweeping dress with long, deep sleeves, and a small tiara atop her head.
"Beautiful, isn't she?" Luna asked, her voice causing Violet to jump slightly, "Sorry."
"It's alright. Yes, she was very beautiful." She glanced over the girl in front of her, now wearing a fresh uniform and her damp hair pulled over one shoulder, "Feeling better?"
"Much, thank you."
Luna was one of few words, Violet supposed. She followed the girl back to the couch, picking up her bag when she realized how late it had gotten.
"You're leaving?" Luna looked up from the plate in front of her, a flash of sadness in her eyes. The first real glimpse of emotion she'd really shown.
"Yes, sorry, I don't want to be late to Transfiguration. Sorry about the Slytherins, they're horrible pranksters, but you'll get used to it eventually. That, or they'll get bored of messing with you. I'll be around if you need me, though."
Luna nodded, focusing back on her food, "Thank you, Violet. You're a good friend. Bye now!"
Violet laughed softly at the girls odd but endearing behavior. She started her way down Ravenclaw's spiral staircase, sighing as she realized the Transfiguration classroom was on the other side of the castle... on the first floor.
At the bottom of the spiral staircase, Violet reached for the bronze door handle, only for her hand to find empty air. She blinked a few times, staring at the space, only to realize someone else was standing in front of her.
"Oh!" The boy gasped. Violets eyes shot up, her eyes meeting a brown pair, "Violet? However did you get in here?"
It took a moment for Violet to place his name as Eddie Carmichael, a boy who had helped her during her first week at Hogwarts by stopping her from attacking Draco Malfoy.
She never paid him much attention the previous year. He was a second-year Ravenclaw then, now a third-year, so they never had any real interactions outside of that first time they'd met. They waved in the halls sometimes, but that was about it.
He'd gotten taller- if she weren't still standing on the last step, she would've had to tilt her head back to look up at him. His brown hair was cut close to his head, with a hint of curl at the ends. His skin was tanned, as if he'd spent the entire summer outside.
"Violet?" He repeated her name again, giving her a look to say it wasn't the first time.
Her cheeks tinted pink as she realized she'd been staring at him, "Hm? Oh, sorry! Luna brought me up, she needed to clean up from that stupid prank the Slytherins pulled, so I brought her lunch."
She was speaking too fast, rambling as she twisted the bag of her strap in her hands nervously. Why was she so nervous?
Eddie nodded, humor in his eyes as leaned against the door frame, "I was just on my way to check on her. I heard at lunch what happened, wanted to make sure she was alright. She hasn't had the easiest time here."
Violet furrowed her brow, "Is it the Slytherins? She's a nice girl, but an easy target, it seems. It doesn't seem to bother her much, though."
"Nothing seems to bother her," Eddie agreed, moving inside the stairwell.
Violet moved to step past him, but he reached a hand out to stop her. His hand settled on her arm, a shy smile on his lips.
"Thanks for making sure she was okay... Do you, um... Maybe want to hang out some time?"
Violet tried to keep her face from revealing the shock she felt when she realized he was trying to ask her out. Luckily she was saved from having to respond, the bell signaling the end of lunch interrupting them.
"Sorry, I have to get to class, I'll see you later!" She rushed out, nearly tripping over her feet as she raced across the castle. She didn't look back, so she missed the hurt in Eddies expression as he watched her go.
Her sole focus was to get to Transfiguration so she could talk with her friends, and also so she wouldn't get in trouble with Professor McGonagall.
Though, the closer to class she got, the more she hesitated telling them, a twinge of discomfort at the memory of what had just happened causing her pause.