King of the Woods
18 October 1974
“Slughorn is a good man. I’ve known him for ages. A real talent around the cauldron.” Said Dumbledore, tapping his fingers on his dark oak desk. “He tells me that you’re not too bad yourself! Your brother, though– Slughorn tells me that he’s a genius in the classroom.”
Violette shrugged, “Theo has always been very smart.”
“So I’ve heard.”
Her leg bounced, slightly, but she sat more comfortably in his office than she used to. Her shoulders were more relaxed, and she didn’t fidget with her fingers as much.
“I’m not sure if there’s a book out there that he hasn’t read.”
This was her fourth time meeting with the Headmaster. She had expected to go in there with a clenched jaw each time, forced to discuss the curse that had brought so much destruction into her life. Instead, they would just talk. Dumbledore knew that Violette would not open up so quickly, and let her guard down, especially not with him. She was her mother’s daughter.
“Slughorn tells me of another student who is very advanced in potion making. A Mr. Severus Snape.”
Violette nodded, “Severus is very good at potions. I think it might be the only thing that he cares about.”
“Are you friends with Mr. Snape?”
“I think so. I would say so. He’s very quiet. He hangs around with the same boys I do. Evan Rosier and Mulciber and Regulus Black.”
“So, you’ve settled into a good group of friends, I see.”
“They’re nice.”
“All Slytherins, is that right?”
Violette hummed, tilting her head to the side and thinking, “No… There’s a boy called Barty, he’s Evan’s best friend and he’s in Ravenclaw.”
“Ravenclaw, you say?” Dumbledore chuckled, “Your mother’s house!”
Violette had forgotten that her mother had attended Hogwarts.
“Really?”
“Oh, yes. A Ravenclaw through and through, your mother. Very clever. Does she often talk about her school days with you?”
She shook her head, “No, sir. Never, not around me, at least. With Juliette, maybe.”
He slowly nodded. “Perhaps next time we can talk more about it. For now, it’s best that you get going. Wouldn’t want to be late to class now, would we?”
When Violette was gone, Dumbledore sat back and pondered. His mind flooded with thoughts.
She must not tell her children anything , he thought to himself. I wonder if her dear husband knew of her life before she knew him. Perhaps she has buried it all away, it is something she would do, I think. It took her years to accept her lineage. Maybe she did not accept it, truly. Alice, sweet and stubborn Alice.
* * *
The Great Hall buzzed once lunch ended, with students rising from their seats and gathering their things to go on for the day. A soft daylight shone through stained glass windows as low chatter hummed about the room.
“I’ll give you my Astronomy notes if you help me with the Potions assignment.” Mulciber said, swinging his legs over the wooden bench and standing up. “Come on, Sev, it’s a fair trade!”
“It would be a fair trade if you had done the Astronomy notes yourself, but you ripped them off of some lousy Hufflepuff.” Severus sneered, “Have you ever considered doing your own homework, Mulciber?”
The group of them headed out of the Great Hall with Violette walking between Evan and Barty. The two of them were discussing the upcoming Hogsmeade field trips and Halloween.
“Violette!”
The girl turned around to see Lily following behind the group. The boys all stopped, turning their noses up at the red haired girl.
“Hi, Lily.”
“You have the next hour free, right?”
Violette nodded, “Yes.”
“Come with me to the courtyard. They’re serving hot chocolate.”
Violette smiled, then turned a quick glance at the boys. Evan was already tall, but then, he seemed like a giant. With his hands shoved in his pockets, Violette watched him and the others sneer at Lily with wrinkled brows. Violette didn’t quite understand it.
“I’d love to.” She nodded.
As Violette left with Lily, the boys stayed, and Barty furrowed his brow.
“But, she’s a Laurent.” He questioned, “I don’t get it. Wouldn’t she–”
Evan’s expression softened, but he still seemed unhappy. He let out a long sigh.
“I don’t think she knows.” He said, “Wouldn’t be surprised if Evan’s left that out of their daily gossip.”
* * *
The two girls sat on one of the benches in the courtyard sipping their hot chocolates. The paper cup warmed Violette’s cold hands as the crisp autumn breeze rolled in.
“What’s Halloween like around here?” Asked Violette.
Lily took a sip of her drink, “It can be a lot of fun. There’s a big feast in the Great Hall. The candles are turned to jack-o-lanterns, and the elves serve loads of sweets and stuff. Oh!” She gasped, “I forgot!”
She set her cup down and picked up her book bag off of the ground and set it between them. Pulling the brown leather flap off of it, she dug her hand in and pulled out two candy canes.
“Here.” She said, handing Violette one, “Dip it in your hot chocolate. Mary turned me onto it, it’s delicious.”
Violette did as Lily suggested, taking the lid off of her cup and swirling the peppermint inside of the drink like a stirrer. The girls’ hands got sticky from the candy. Violette grabbed her bag to get out a few napkins for them. As she sifted through her book bag, Lily caught a glimpse of one of the books in there. She beamed, leaning forward and pointing at it.
“Is that Pride and Prejudice?” She asked, and Violette’s eyes widened.
“Ah–” She swallowed, pulling the flap back over the bag, “It isn’t mine.”
The friendly atmosphere between them had stiffened. Stale bread. Violette was so quick to hide the book after Lily had seen it. She was used to keeping it hidden, especially in the Slytherin common room.
She lowered her voice, speaking softly, “Oh. Are you reading it?” She shrugged one shoulder, “I love that book.”
“It’s– it was a gift.” Violette answered, quickly.
Violette had taken it out to the fields behind the greenhouse to read it, where nobody would see her reading a muggle book. Most books that she read had to be approved by her mother, but as Violette grew older, Alice passed that responsibility onto Theo. Pride and Prejudice was a classic, which usually Theo said were acceptable for a pureblood witch to read. For some reason, Jane Austen did not fit his curriculum. He thought that she ought to be reading more “intellectual” stories. What he really meant was that she ought to be reading books written by men. Violette thought that Theo ought to know best. There wasn’t a book that he hadn’t read.
“You… won’t tell my brother, will you?”
Then it hit her. Lily understood, with the sinking of her heart. Right, of course, she thought, a muggle book. Lily still had not told Violette of her blood status because she didn’t see the importance of it. She could hear Marlene’s voice in her head, then remembered a conversation they had had the other day.
“Have you told her, yet?” She asked.
Lily didn’t answer.
“Oh, come on, Lils.” Said Marlene, “Are you ever going to?”
“Why should I have to?” Lily said, “If she hasn’t asked about it by now, then surely, it doesn’t matter to her.”
Lily looked up at Violette, smiled softly.
“Of course not.”
She wanted to push the conversation, asking ‘why not?’ but she knew the answer.
Violette swallowed, relieved. She realized what a tense environment she had created. She crossed her legs and sipped her hot chocolate, letting a few moments pass.
She means no harm , she thought, she must think me strange, now. Why must I act so unusually?
“Well, have you read it?”
Violette glanced up at Lily.
Maybe she doesn’t.
“I have.” Said Violette.
“And?”
A smile curled at Violette’s lips, and she huffed out a girlish chuckle from her nose. Looking down, her eyes flickered up at her friend.
“It’s my favorite book.” She admitted, shyly, “I named my cat after one of the characters. I know, it’s pathetic.”
Lily laughed, beaming, and she could see that Violette’s guard was lowering. It was a gentle feeling, a sweetness.
“It’s not! After who?” She chuckled, “Is it Lizzie?”
Violette shook her head, “Mr. Darcy.”
The two of them laughed out loud, and there was no trace of tension or uncomfort.
* * *
“Did you get ‘em, Pete?” James asked, hidden beneath his invisibility cloak.
Peter glanced around, then nodded at a box at the top of the stairs.
“In there.” Remus said, crossing his arms. “Code word is wompus . Be quick. Professor Melton’ll be back from the library in eight minutes..”
James grinned, and he and Sirius stumbled up the stairs to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom.
“ Alohomora .” Sirius muttered, pointing his wand at the knob, unlocking the door, and they entered.
Out of the small cardboard box, the two boys picked out the enchanted sticks of chalk and set them at the chalkboard at the front of the classroom. They had been planning this one for a short while, Professor Melton would pick up a piece of chalk, then as he started writing, it would transform into a moth, then the rest of the sticks would follow suit. All of them would swarm him, flying and flapping their chalky wings at and around him, then, poof! They would turn back to chalk, raining white powder over the old man.
James chuckled, setting down the sticks of chalk, “That’s what he gets for marking me down on that vampire essay.”
With everything finished up, the boys got out of the classroom before Melton made it back. They gathered back into the classroom after everyone else started to file in and take their seats. All four of the boys were giddy, but kept their mouths shut and smiles down as they waited.
“Come now, let’s get a move on!” Melton bit. The boys all glanced at each other. He was in a sour mood, already. “We don’t have all day.”
Violette settled into her seat, crossing her arms and staring up at the front.
“Since Halloween is coming up, I thought it would be the perfect time to talk about this particularly frightening creature. Can anyone tell me what an Erkling is?”
Lily raised her hand, Melton called on James instead.
“Potter?”
The boy cleared his throat, “Uh… freaky little things, aren’t they? Wrinkly little goblin fella’s, I thought. Dad used to tell a story about–”
“Yes,” The man cut in, “... the Erkling is an elfish beast, about three feet tall with pointed faces.”
Evan leaned over, whispered to Violette, “Three feet tall with a pointed face? Cela me fait beaucoup penser au professeur Witts.”
Sounds a lot like Professor Witts to me.
The two of them snickered, quietly, but louder than they had intended. Professor Melton stopped, turned.
“Is something amusing, Mrs. Laurent?”
The class was deathly quiet. Violette looked up and shrunk in her seat.
“No, sir.”
The man tilted his head to stretch out a kink in his neck, then turned around to continue the lesson. He went to pick up a piece of chalk, and the four Gryffindor boys all held their breaths in anticipation.
“As I was saying…” He wrote on the board, “These creatures have a particular affinity for the taste of children. Originating from the Black Forest of Bavaria, Germany…”
The boys watched his hand closely, waiting for the enchantment to start to work, but nothing seemed to be happening. They furrowed their brows, turning and glancing at each other from across the classroom.
“Their high pitch cackles were particularly entrancing to children, and they used this to lure them away from their guardians to eat them. These creatures also enjoyed shooting darts at unsuspecting victims.”
Violette leaned over at Evan, whispering in French to him, “My brother used to scare me with those things. Used to turn on the record player in the middle of the night, really quiet, and tell me that the Erklings were singing to me.”
“Did he get in trouble for that?”
“Of course not. Even Juliette would play into it, sometimes. I slept in my parents’ bed for a week. It scared me to even speak German after that… I thought that they’d hear me and come get me.”
“The word ‘Erkling’ comes from the German word, ‘erlkönig’ , which literally translates to, ‘elf king’.” Melton scribbled, and still, nothing happened.
Violette snickered at his pronunciation of the word, looking down, but Melton caught it and paused. He dropped his hand and turned around.
“What is so funny, Mrs. Laurent?”
The class was even more quiet than it was before. Now, everyone turned to stare at her. Melton tapped his foot with a frown. “Hm?”
“Nothing, sir.”
“Oh? Is that right? You have been laughing this whole class period. Is there something you find funny about this lesson?”
The air was still, and she felt as if everyone in the room was examining her with a magnifying glass.
“I–” She stammered, “I thought that it was… interesting, the way you pronounced the word.” She swallowed, eyes flickering around the classroom. “And, well, the translation is incorrect.”
“How is that, Mrs. Laurent?”
“Well…”
James and Sirius both glanced at each other, wrinkling their brows, and Remus raised his.
“Why don’t you come up to the front of the class and show us all, then? Everybody, Mrs. Laurent will be taking over for today, since my research on the subject has been inaccurate.”
She exhaled, “Professor–”
“Come along.” He set his chalk down, and sat down at his desk. “We’re waiting on you, Mrs. Laurent.”
Hesitantly, Violette stood up, and the wooden floor creaked when she did. With her hands together, slowly, she walked ahead toward the chalkboard, feeling every eye in the class burn holes into her back.
“Well–” She cleared her throat, picking up a piece of chalk, “The word, erlkönig , consists of two words,” She wrote as she spoke, and there was a wavering in her voice, “ Erle , which means alder, which is a type of wood, and könig , which means king.”
She continued to write, and the chalk began to crumble between her fingers. James, Remus, Peter, and Sirius all froze as knots tied in their stomachs.
“This means that, erlkönig , directly translated, means ‘King of the wood’ , or ‘woods’ in this case.”
Peter’s eyes went wide, and he lifted his hand to his mouth.
“Pete?” James whispered, “What is it?”
“The enchantment!” Peter muttered, “I used the wrong one! I set it to be dormant for longer than I was meant to!”
The chalk completely turned to dust, falling to her feet like snow. She stepped back, confused in the still silent classroom. With a sudden burst, the chalk gathered, forming into a moth, and fluttered up at her. She narrowed her eyes, then the other sticks followed, growing wings and flying up toward her. They flew around her head, weaving through her hair, and she swatted her arms and spun in circles.
“What is the meaning of this?” Professor Melton shot up, and the class erupted into laughter.
“We’ve gotta stop it!” Remus told the boys.
“What?” Sirius shook his head, his mouth wide open, “This is even better than what we’d planned!”
“It was supposed to go after Melton, not Violette.” Remus frowned, “What’s the counter enchantment?”
“You’re gonna make it stop?” Sirius furrowed his brow, shaking his head.
"Before the best part?" Said James, and Remus shot him a sharp glare. He put his hands up, “Okay, okay,” He sighed, “Moony’s right. We should–”
Poof!
The fluttering ceased, as did Violette’s swatting, and Professor Melton’s poor attempts at making the chalk moths disappear. They had turned back into powder, covering Violette in chalky dust. All was still, again, and the boys looked up at her like petrified stone statues. Of course, Professor Melton and the rest of the students were no strangers to things like this, and they knew exactly who was to blame. That, and James's poor attempt to cover his snickering mouth, all knew who the culprits were.
Violette’s eyes locked on Sirius’s, and she could see the guilt in them.
“Mr. Potter, Mr. Black, Mr. Pettigrew, and Mr. Lupin?” Melton frowned, “My office. Now.”