"This way, miss Potter." Headmaster Dumbledore said as he walked beside Violet with a solemn look on his face.
The corridors of St. Mungo's were brighter than she expected. White walls, polished floors, the faint scent of potions and something sterile that clung to the back of her throat. Healers moved briskly past them in lime green robes. No one paid them much attention, but Violet still found herself walking a little closer to Dumbledore's side. A part of her afraid that she might get swarmed by people much like back in Leaky Cauldron.
"Albus."
The voice cut through her thoughts and Violet looked up.
A man stood a short distance away, leaning slightly against the wall as if he hadn't quite decided whether to approach or leave. He was tall, he likely towered over anyone Violet knew with the exception of Hagrid. His shirt looked worn and his posture seemed tired, but his eyes... his eyes were sharp. Gentle, in a way that made something in her chest twist.
He was looking at her.
Dumbledore slowed to a stop. "Remus."
The man, Remus, pushed himself off the wall and took a step closer; though not too close. Like he was afraid of getting too close.
"You've grown." he said softly.
Violet blinked. She didn't know this man.
And yet, there was a part of her that was telling her that she did. A nearly forgotten memory of laughter among blurry figures came to her mind.
"Do I...?"
"No." Remus cut in gently, with sad smile tugging at his lips. "You were very young back then."
He looked like he wanted to say more. His gaze locked onto her as his shoulders dropped, as if a heavy weight had settled on them.
Then he exhaled quietly and stepped aside.
"He's ready." Remus said, his voice steadier now as he glanced at Dumbledore before looking back at Violet. "I'd like to talk with you after, if you'd like."
Violet swallowed and nodded before she could stop herself. "Okay."
Remus gave a small nod in return, though his eyes didn't leave her immediately. Then he turned away and nodded to headmaster.
Violet followed after her headmaster, feeling her steps get heavier the closer she got to the door. And then they stopped in front of the door.
It looked no different from the others. Plain. Unremarkable. Just another room in a hospital filled with hundreds of them. And yet...
Violet couldn't move.
Her gaze fixed on the handle, her breath caught somewhere between her lungs and her throat. This was it. On the other side of that door was her godfather. Her last family. The one that her parents had entrusted her safety to in case anything happened to them.
And also a man that had spent the last ten years in a prison with literal soul sucking monsters as his sole company for a crime he did not commit.
She swallowed.
Headmaster Dumbledore's hand came to rest lightly on her shoulder. "Take your time." He said gently.
Violet nodded, trying to steady herself. She took a breath and raised her hand to the doorknob and... stopped. Just above the doorknob, her hand twitched in the air but did not go any closer to the handle.
Violet clenched her fingers, forcing them to steady, but they refused to listen. Her breath came out uneven, her chest tight as if something was pressing down on it.
What if he didn't want to be there for her?
What if he did?
She squeezed her eyes shut for a brief moment.
'He'sfamily.' She tried to tell herself.
'So is aunt Petunia.' And a treacherous part of her replied.
Her breath became even more uneven as she tried to calm herself, trying to think of anything that might help. To tell her that everything would be fine. And the answer to those...
'See you later.'
...was the sight of Jonathan waving her goodbye as she went to headmaster's office.
Her breath finally steadied as calmness took over and her hand grasped the doorknob and pushed.
The door creaked with the movement and revealed the occupant of the room when it was fully opened.
The man sitting on the bed looked thin. Not to the point where it would look dangerous but it did give him a sickly appearance. His beard was lightly trimmed and his black hair fell down to his shoulders. It looked unkempt but in a more... cool way, as some of the other girls in Gryffindor would describe it, rather than the unwashed look professor Snape's hair had.
"Violet?" His voice was rough, but the way his eyes seemed to just sparkle with hope as he looked at her...
"Merlin, you have grown so much! Let me, argh!" Yeah, Violet could accept that this man, who had gotten himself tangled in blankets as he tried to rush towards her and fell on his face, was family.
"I'll leave you two alone for now." Headmaster said with a chuckle as he left the room and closed the door behind him. Leaving Violet alone with her godfather.
---------------
"You seem happy." Remus said as Albus walked out of the room.
"Merely optimistic." Albus said with a smile. "A few moments of happiness, unimportant in the grand scheme of things, yet it makes me think that the future truly is worth fighting for."
He had lost far too much throughout the years. Many of which because of his own foolish actions. That was the reason he had dedicated his life to Hogwarts.
To teach the younger generation so that they would not make the same mistakes.
He had failed in that with many, far too many. Yet a moment like this, where a young girl was finally reunited with family, made him feel happy to have lived so long.
"When will she be here?" And yet he also knew that these moments never lasted too long.
"She already is." Remus said gruffly as the space shimmered and a woman with dark skin wearing a purple dress appeared beside him, wearing several necklaces along with bracelets on her arms and a white blindfold on her eyes.
"It's been too long, Albus." Madame Xanadu, a sorceress who had been alive for centuries, said with a smile as she walked up to him. "When was the last time we saw each other? Around fifty years?"
"Forty seven years." Albus said, trying to keep his voice steady. Not simply due to how easily the immortal sorceress had hidden herself from him, but because of what happened during that last meeting.
"Ah yes, a little before your battle with that upstart Gellert. Still trying to figure out how to trick destiny?" She asked with a smile, her voice slightly mocking but mostly akin to a teacher talking to a particularly stupid student.
"I learned my lesson last time." Albus said, his fists clenched tightly. "And would like to not talk about it much."
"Few like talking of regrets." Her voice was sympathetic. "Luckily, what we have to discuss is something different."
"The 'child of crossroads'." Remus said as he looked at Xanadu with a weird mix of respect and hostility. "Violet.
"Yes. Poor little girl, she has a rather difficult future." Xanadu said with a shake of her head. "The world truly is cruel, to put so much weight on the shoulders of one so young."
"Voldemort." Albus said with a glare. "She will not be alone when the time comes." But then his expression turned to one of confusion when Xanadu simply gazed up at the ceiling.
"How curious." She said, her voice low and slightly amused. "That you immediately jumped to the conclusion that it was that little upstart coward that I was talking about." She then looked at Albus, no levity in her voice at all.
"No, the true trial of Violet Potter has nothing to do with Tom Riddle. It's a choice she'll have to make sooner, one that will decide the way the future of the world, not your little community of wand users, will be. Whether it will be one of light, or fire."
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