Ash was... happy. To leave. She didn't like Hogwarts all that much. Just like the professors, she thought rather resentfully. Why would anyone want to work at Hogwarts anyway? Certainly not for the joy of teaching US. She shut that thought in a metal cabinet, locked it, wrapped it in chains, shoved it into the back of a closet, locked the closet, and then put boards over the door and a sign reading 'KEEP OUT'. Ah. That was better. Now she could be happy again. Ignorance was bliss, right?

She got out a recent piece of art(a watercolor vase of flowers) and started scribbling a note on the back in her cramped and rushed handwriting. Then she leaned back in her seat and stared out the window. This would be a long train ride, probably.

Violet had decided not to let anything that happened at Hogwarts bother her any longer. Not the fact that unbelievably awful things had happened due to a staff member and no real explanation had been given, or that (she'd heard rumored) Professor Schmoe wasn't coming back next year, or that she had once again failed to make any headway with becoming a more sociable being (mostly due to the awful things going on, again).

But no, she wasn't going to let that bother her, or think about the long conversation her grandfather (who undoubtedly had found about all these things) would want to have with her in his study as soon as she got home. Right now she was (finally) headache free, clear-headed, and well-fed, and she was going to sit right down in the rowdy back cars, pull out her journal, and enjoy the train ride back as she wrote her final account of her fourth year at school.

Pushing the car door open, she saw Ashley sitting there, writing on the back of what looked like a drawing. That was okay--Ashley was okay. Violet used to think she was overly suspicious and pessimistic, but it was Violet who'd been wrong, because the world was apparently as sinister as Ashley seemed to think it was.

"Hi, Ash," Violet said as she stowed her carpetbag under the seat and arranged her journal and pencil on her lap. She wasn't sure they were on close enough terms to use the girl's nickname, but Violet was feeling bold today.

Ash looked towards the voice. There was no need- she knew who it was already. Still, the right thing was to look at people when they spoke to you. It was polite, and it made you seem more commanding. Father always looked people in the eye. He was scary, and people always jumped to do what he wanted. See the point? Alex did it too. He gave people a calm, knowing look and they did what he said. And Dustin, he tilted his head and smiled and nobody disagreed with him. And Brandon... and Theodore. They could do it too. “Hey Violet.” She didn’t much care what Violet called her as long as it wasn’t insulting. Plus, Ash was practically her real name now. “How are you? I was just... writing something to my brother. Brandon, the older younger one...” She wasn’t sure what it was. It was a gift, but maybe she meant it as an apology? It didn’t matter. He was smarter than her. He’d get it.

Ash looked back out the window. “How’s your year... summer... train ride... whatever going?” She was suddenly desperate for good news. She wanted to her something that didn’t involve MOM, the war, Poppy, nothing. There must be something good around here. She wanted to know the good things. And while Violet didn’t seem like a very happy person in general, she was the only one here.

"Oh. I didn't know you had brothers," Violet replied without thinking. Then it occurred to her that she really didn't know that much about Ash's background, or any of her schoolmates, for that matter, which wasn't a very good way for a future writer to conduct herself. Violet really needed to get out of her own head, she thought.

"Um, well, the year has been...well, you know how it's been, you were there, too. Apparently I was allergic to something in whatever Poppy put in those candles and it was making me feel sick all year, but I'm much better now, so that's good." Violet considered sharing her other bit of news, recently received from her grandfather's last letter (right after the long diatribe about Healer Poppy and the Ministry and the Hogwarts staff and a few other people). Deciding that she needed to share personal information if she was going to learn any, she went on. "And my youngest uncle--Horatio--he suffered some sort of spell damage during the battle last year and has been in St. Mungo's all year in a sort of magical coma--well, he's been given a new treatment and is showing signs of coming around, so we're all hoping he'll wake up very soon."

”I have two. I only had one but there’s a new one apparently. My family is big. There are my brothers, and Father, and Megan Olivia Matthews, and then there’s Dustin and Alex.” And the rest of the staff. That was a kinda big family. But... it was her entire family. She had no extended family at all. She explained all of this with a flat voice. It wasn’t a secret, she just didn’t like to talk about them.

The standard for good news has become so low,Ash thought. If I told people I went one day without something awful happening, they’d throw a party for me. She stared into Violet’s eyes, in a way that was probably unsettling somehow. “That’s good. You have uncles?” And she cared about them? That was interesting. Ash didn’t have any uncles, but then again she didn’t need any. So it all worked out perfectly.