Another Year at Hogwarts

Draco and I searched the town for a few hours, and the results were the same as every other town we had visited.

“Dang it,” I groaned as Draco and I wondered the streets.

“You sound angry,” Draco commented.

I ignored his comment and pulled out my piece of parchment again. I crossed out the town we had just visited and then put it back in my pocket.

“Okay, let’s get going,” I said as I grabbed onto Draco’s hand. I suddenly stopped and stared down at his hand.

“What?” Draco asked.

“You’re hands are freezing,” I gasped.

“I’m fine,” Draco said. “Where are we headed next?”

“No,” I objected. “Let’s—let’s head to an inn or something,” I suggested. I then let go of his hand and walked away as I added, “I don’t want you getting sick on me or anything.”

“Are you worried about me?” Draco asked.

“Of course not,” I replied as Draco followed behind me.

When Draco and I reached the inn, I noticed someone ducking into a small pub down the street. I immediately stopped as Draco opened the door for me.

“What is it?” he asked.

“Would you mind going inside and getting a room?” I asked. “I have to go check something out really quick.”

“What is it?” asked Draco asked as I began walking away. He then reached out and took my arm. I gasped as I looked back at him. “I’ll go with you,” he said.

“Please!” I exclaimed. “J—just go inside, all right?”

“What did you just say?” Draco shuttered.

“Um…just get a room?”

“No,” Draco said with a slight grin, “what you said before that. Did you just say…‘please’?”

I rolled my eyes and slipped my arm from his. I quickly turned around and walked off. As I did, I could hear Draco softly chuckling to himself before going into the inn.

I quickly reached the pub and made my way inside. The place was dimly lit and there were very few people inside the tiny pub. As I scanned the area, I quickly found the person I was looking for. In the far back corner of the pub, there was a ginger-haired boy hiding within the shadows of a wooden booth. In his hand was something small and silver, and it resembled what looked like a lighter.

“Ron,” I whispered with a smile.

Without even thinking, I paced across the pub and went over to the booth Ron was sitting at. He immediately jumped when I sat down in front of him.

“I’m so glad I finally found you, Ron!” I exclaimed. “You don’t know how long I’ve been looking for you! I’ve been to five other towns searching for you—but thank goodness you’re here!” I smiled while reaching out and taking hold of his hands.

“W—who are you?” Ron asked with this horrified expression on his face.

“It’s me, Ron. I’m Vi—” I stopped and thought about my response for a moment. “Um…I’m…I—I went to Hogwarts last year,” I explained before withdrawing my hands. “Anyways, do you want a butterbeer?” But before Ron could even answer, interrupted him. “Good, I’ll be right back!”

I quickly got up from the booth and went up to the counter and ordered a butterbeer for Ron. I turned around with the drink and was about to head back to the table when I notice Ron playing with the his Deluminator again.

Suddenly, in that moment, I realized that by being Victoria Baker, I wasn’t going to get Ron to return to Harry and Hermione. A crazy idea then came into my mind, and I felt that I had to go for it.

I quickly hurried away to the entrance of the pub. There, I placed the drink down onto the small coffee table and reached for the charm necklace Snape had given me.

I closed my eyes tightly and took a deep breath. “Okay, let’s do this,” I said before tugging off the necklace.

I had expected to feel some kind of surge of…well, energy or maybe some flashing lights and sparkles everywhere—similar to Odette’s transformation in The Swan Princess or the Beast’s transformation in Beauty and the Beast. However, there were no sparking lights or surges of anything.

“Hm…well, that was a disappointment,” I said with a disappointed sigh. Then again, if I thought about it, nothing amazing happened when Snape first casted the spell to conceal my identity, so it made sense that nothing amazing would happen when I took off the necklace.

I stuffed Snape’s charm necklace into my pocket before picking up the drink and heading back to Ron’s table.

“Here you go, Ron,” I said as I placed his drink in front of him.

Ron’s eyes gazed up at me, and they sudden widened when he saw me. “Blood hell!” Ron exclaimed while jumping out of his seat. “What the hell is this? Who the hell are you and what are you doing here?” he questioned while fumbling to find his wand.

“Calm down, Ron! It’s me, Violet—”

“No!” Ron said while shaking his head. “You can’t be Violet. She’s dead! It was in the papers.”

“Lower your voice, Ron,” I ordered while glancing around the pub. The few people who were in the pub were now staring at Ron and me. “Come on, sit down,” I encouraged as I turned my attention back to Ron, who was also staring out nervously at the people who were staring at us.

“How do I know this isn’t a trick?” Ron asked, still standing up.

“Would you like me to go through all the embarrassing events of your life, Won-Won?” I joked with a small grin. “Like the first time at the Burrow, we can start with the time you puked out—”

“Okay, okay, okay!” Ron exclaimed as he slowly sat back down. He was quiet for a moment, but then he leaned over the table to me and whispered, “How is it that you’re here? Am I dreaming?”

“Y—yes, yeah you are. You’re dreaming! You are definitely dreaming!” I agreed with a nervous smile. “I mean—I’m, I’m dead after all. How else could I be here?”

“O—okay,” Ron said with his scrunched eyebrows. He then reach out and grabbed his butterbeer and chugged half of it down.

“So…why aren’t you with Hermione and Harry?” I asked.

“How do you know about that?”

I grinned. “I might be dead, Ron, but I’m still from a different world. I still have my knowledge of what goes on in this world.”

“Oh…right,” said Ron. “Well…I—I really don’t want to talk about it.”

“Ronald Weasley,” I scolded.

“Well, you already know what happened, Violet!” Ron exclaimed.

“I know I already know what happened, but you have to own up to what happened. Besides, it’ll be good for you—talking about what happened.”

“It’s just—I was…” Ron let out a heavy sigh and paused for a moment. “Harry and us, we were hunting Horcruxes,” Ron explained. “And…well, I feel under the influence of the Horcrux we managed to obtain when we broke into the Ministry of Magic. So…when…when I was under the influence of the Horcrux, I become jealous when I saw Harry and Hermione together. And I mean, mixed with my anger about Ginny being punished back at Hogwarts…” Ron trailed off.

I sighed heavily as I reached over to table to took hold of Ron’s hand. “It’s okay, Ron.”

Ron flashed a weak smile. “Well, anyways, I just couldn’t take it anymore, you know? Harry didn’t seem to know what he was doing and we were getting nowhere. I just couldn’t stand it anymore. So I just…left.”

“You did…look for them, right? After you left, I mean.”

“Yeah, of course!” Ron exclaimed. “But…I couldn’t find them. I’ve Apparated countless times, trying to find them…but,” Ron exhaled heavily and sank into his seat. “I just…I don’t know where to look anymore. I’m a little…lost at the moment. And to be honest…I think…I’ve—I’ve given up.”

“You can’t do that, Ron,” I said. “You have to keep believing in yourself and in Hermione and Harry. I know you felt that you were useless and that Harry and Hermione undermined you, but you know that isn’t true. They need you, Ron. Harry needs you. Hermione needs you.”

Ron remained silent, and I could see that his eyes were glazed over. He then slipped his hand out from mine and then chugged the rest of his butterbeer down.

“Ron,” I whispered as I gently wrapped my hand around the silver object he kept holding. My thumb flicked the top open as I said, “Listen Ron. Can you hear them?”

“Hear who?” he asked while staring down at the device.

“Just listen carefully, Ron,” I whispered. “Forget everything and focus only on what you truly want: to find Harry and Hermione.”

In that instant, the world seemed to have gone silent as Ron and I sat in that wooden booth and listened. And as we sat there, I began to feel nervous, thinking that this might not work. Think that Ron had given up too early and that I had come too late to help him.

But suddenly…

“Did you hear that?” Ron asked as his eyes snapped up and met mine. “I—I can hear her.”

A small smile fell onto my face as I asked, “What can you hear Ron?”

“Harry and Hermione, but mostly Hermione,” Ron grinned. “She’s calling my name.”

The smile on my face remained as I withdrew my hand and let Ron but the silver device to his ear. His smile began to widen, and I could see this liveliness returning to his eyes.

“Do you think you can find them now?” I asked.

“Yeah,” he grinned, still listening to the Deluminator.

“Okay then,” I smiled as I rose from my seat. “I have to go now.”

“What?” Ron asked as he looked up at me. “You—you can’t just leave, Violet. What about Hermione and Harry? You can come with me—”

“I’m dead, Ron,” I reminded. “I can’t go with you. This is just your dream, remember? I was only here to help assist you in finding Harry and Hermione. Now that I have,” I said, “I have to go now.”

“I see,” Ron said as he lowered his head.

Taking this moment to leave, I quickly turned around and headed for the door. As I did so, I pulled my wand out from my pocket and casted a quick memory spell on the few people in the room so that they couldn’t remember me being here.

After slipping my charm necklace back on, I walked out of the pub and into the cold night street. Outside, I looked in through the window and saw Ron raising his head up. He quickly looked around the room with a puzzled expression on his face. He then got up and went up to the counter and asked the person up there something. A disappoint look appeared on his face before he returned to his seat.

Slowly, I saw Ron lowering his head to look down at his Deluminator. A faint smile fell upon his face as he clutched it in his hands.

“Come on, Ron,” I whispered. “You know what you have to do.”

Ron continued to look at the Deluminator for some time, as though he was unsure of what exactly he was supposed to do. But, all the while, a smile remained on his face.

Then with a blink of the eye, Ron Disapparated.