A Muggle at Hogwarts

The halls of Hogwarts were quiet throughout most the holiday break. A majority of the students and staff had gone home to spend time with their families. However, Professor Snape was not one so lucky. To my own disappointment, I actually didn’t run into him as much as I wanted. Once in a while, when with Harry or Draco, we would come across Snape wondering the school grounds. However, it didn’t seem like the right moment to go to him and thank him for stopping Harry and Draco from tearing each other apart a few weeks back.

Despite this, most of my days were spent with Harry and Draco. Harry still disapproved of my spending time with Draco, especially since our weekend handout turns out to be more of a daily thing. Nonetheless, he let it be because he knew Dumbledore had requested it. Of course, I could see the worry in his eyes every time I went out to meet Draco, and I couldn’t help but feel guilty for lying to Harry. But being able to actually spend time with Draco—to openly spend time with Draco was a rare opportunity. It was an opportunity I might never have again, and it was an opportunity I didn’t want slipping through my fingers.

It was early Christmas morning when I woke up to find Harry sitting in Hermione’s bed. Rubbing my eyes, I croaked a good morning to Harry and asked him what he was doing there.

“I have something for you,” he explained. “I came in here to wake you up, but…” he stopped and looked down at his hands. “You—you were sleeping so peacefully…I didn’t want to wake you.”

“Harry,” I smiled, “you didn’t have to get me anything.”

Harry lifted his rosy pink face and his green eyes brightened. Slowly, he reached into his robe pocket and pulled out his wand.

“Oh, a magic show!” I exclaimed with a bright smile.

Harry laughed along with me, and the smile on his face brightened even more. “Well, I guess you can call it that. But um…just—just watch.”

With that, Harry got up and pointed his wand at the window. With a swift flick on his wrist, the window opened and a cool breeze came into the room—carrying some flakes of snow with it. The flakes of snow twirled around the room as though they were dancing. They flew over to my bed, and before my very eyes, the snowflakes came together and formed a tiny snow ballerina, who continued to dance. I watched gleefully as the snow ballerina danced through the air. More snowflakes came into the room, and one by one, each turned into a ballerina and danced throughout the room. I watched as the tiny ballerinas hovered over my head in a circle—dancing in unison. They all did a twirling leap into the air and with a poof, turned back into tiny snowflakes and sprinkled over me.

“Merry Christmas, Violet,” Harry grinned while watching me giggle as the cold snowflakes melted on my skin.

“That was breathtaking. Thank you so much, Harry!”

“There’s something else,” Harry added before pulling out a plain white box with gold and red ribbons. Nervously, he extended the box out to me.

“What’s this?” I asked.

“Open it,” he encouraged.

I hesitantly took the box from Harry and opened the lid. My eyes immediately widened and my head shot up to look at Harry. “No—I can’t accept this, Harry. It’s too much.”

“It’s fine. Really. I really want you to have it. That’s why I bought it for you. Come on,” Harry said as he got off Hermione’s bed and sat beside me on my bed. He took out the silver locket engraved with pale purple violets from the box and held it in his hands. With a smile on his face, Harry asked if he could put the necklace on me.

“S-sure,” I answered nervously.

I took my hair and pulled it to one side as I leaned towards Harry. He leaned forward as well as he put the necklace around my thin neck. I couldn’t help but hear the loud pounding of his heart and his slow, yet nervous breathing. I’m sure that if I had looked up at Harry, I would find his face completely red.

“There,” Harry said as he quickly pulled away.

“Thank you, Harry,” I said while looking down at my necklace. I then looked up at him with a warm smile and said, “It’s beautiful. I’m really sorry I couldn’t get you anything.”

“Your joy is enough,” Harry charmingly replied.

“Aw, Harry!” I exclaimed. I couldn’t resist. I smiled brightly as I threw my arms around Harry and have him a friendly hug. “You’re too sweet,” I smiled as I pulled away. “Merry Christmas.”

“Um…y-yeah,” Harry blushed. He quickly looked down at his hand before he continued. “So, Violet, I was wondering, if you didn’t have any plans today, would you like to go to Hogsmeade with me today?”

"Oh," I managed to stutter out. “I’m sorry, Harry. Draco’s already made plans for today. I’d like to back out, but you know—with our deal with Dumbledore and all.”

Harry forced a smile onto his face. “I understand. Don’t worry about it.”

“I really am sorry, Harry. I’ll try to finish things with Draco quickly so we can spend this evening together, okay? We can grab some food and hang out in the tower—just you and me.”

“That sounds great,” Harry said with a real smile. “But can I ask you something, Violet?”

I nodded. “Of course.”

“Is spending time with Malfoy actually helping your relationship? I mean—are things getting better?”

“To be honest, they are,” I replied with confidence. “We’re getting along quite well, actually.”

“Does that mean—” Harry paused. He quickly looked away shaking his head. “N—never mind. It’s nothing.”

“No, what were you going to ask, Harry?” I questioned.

Harry clenched his jaw. He took a deep breath before continuing. “Well, you aren’t—you’re not falling for him, are you?”

I was completely taken back by Harry’s question. If things were different between him and Draco, I probably would have told him the truth. But knowing that their relationship is not so great, I forced a laugh. “Draco and I are simply becoming…friends, I guess you can say—though I don’t think he would use that word to describe our relationship,” I replied.

“I see,” Harry said with a sigh of relief.

“Well,” I said awkwardly before quickly getting up, “I should probably get dressed. I have to see Snape and then I’m off to see Draco after lunch.”

“Wait, Snape? Why do you have to go speak to Snape?” he frantically asked.

“It’s something personal,” I replied.

“Would you like me to go with you?” Harry asked.

“No, it’s fine. But you can accompany me to breakfast, if you want,” I grinned.
Harry did as well. “Of course.”

When breakfast was over, I headed down to Snape’s office. I thought about going to check up on Draco because he, for some reason, wasn’t at breakfast, but I knew that what I had to say to Snape was far more important to me.

“Professor Snape?” I called as I entered his class.

However, as I called his name out again, no one answered. I strolled through the class, and that’s when I noticed his office door slightly open. As I made my way over to the room, I saw a glimpse of him. Snape was sitting in his office behind his desk. In his hands, he held a picture frame. It looked like the same picture frame I had seen in his desk earlier when he had given me detention.

I sighed heavily as I stepped away from the door to leave. But, to my luck, my sleeve caught onto the door handle and a loud creek was heard.

“Who’s there?” Snape immediately demanded over loud shuffling.

“S—sorry,” I apologized, but didn’t move. “Um…m—may I come in?”

I heard Snape exhale heavily. “You’re here already aren’t you?”

I paused for a moment before slowly stepping into the room. “I’m sorry to disturb you, but I promise this won’t take very long—”

“What do you want, Ms. Bell?” Snape asked in his usual dull voice.

“Um,” I said while tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. I was feeling so nervous for some reason! “I know it’s a bit late to say this, but I want to thank you for stopping Draco and Harry from tearing one another apart a few weeks back.”

Snape said nothing to me, just stared at me for a moment with a blank stare on his face. He sighed heavily and before looking down at some paperwork and said, “You can leave now, Scarlet.” But the moment that named escaped his mouth, he froze.

“She went to school with you, didn’t she?” I hesitantly asked.

“Leave, Ms. Bell,” Snape ordered.

“You’re constantly calling me Scarlet. I want to know who she is.”

“She’s no one!” Snape snapped while angrily looking up at me.

“And that’s obviously why you keep a picture of the two of you in your desk, right?” I asked while gesturing to him. I scoffed. “She’s not presented in the original Harry Potter series, so it’s likely that she went to school with you.”

“What—“ Snape began. But I assumed that he remembered that I was from a different world, and so he didn’t finish his sentence. He simply said, “Get out of my office, Ms. Bell. You have come to thank me, and now that you have, you no longer have any business here. Leave!”

I scoffed as I turned my heels and headed out of his office. Right before I closed the door behind me, Snape called out to me.

“Just like Scarlet and me, you two are too different. It’s never going to work.”

I remained silent and frozen outside of Snape’s office. That short statement of his made everything seem so clear. He was comparing his relationship with Scarlet like my relationship with Draco. This only meant that he too had fallen for someone who was probably his complete opposite back in school—Scarlet.

“Have a happy Christmas, Ms. Bell,” Snape said, signaling me to leave.

I didn’t reply. I just hurried out of his class as quickly as possible.