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There were whispers of odd happenings at Hogwarts, of a boy with a cat and a snake at his side and of the girl who kept him enthralled and who was in turn enthralled by him. The whispers spoke of their strange smiles and laughter and of their dances, with steps that were unfamiliar to anyone who watched. Some said that the two students would surely get married; others vehemently disagreed and argued that the two were merely friends. Whatever the case, all agreed that events of great mystery and intrigue were taking place at Hogwarts, led by the two first year students, and that it would be interesting to see how events would unfold.
The air of mystery surrounding the two only increased the following year when two others, Luna Lovegood and Ginny Weasley, joined for their first year and found companionship with the Saviour and the Lady, who was commonly known as Marigold Peverell. (That was another thing that had shocked people, as the Peverells had been believed to have died out, a theory which had been proven wrong by the arrival of the enigmatic Marigold at Hogwarts.) Within days of Luna and Ginny’s first day at Hogwarts, they had seemingly been initiated into Harry and Marigold’s group, known as Nimueh’s Saplings (they apparently had a shared fascination of Nimueh, who had trapped Merlin in a tree) which had previously consisted only of Harry, Marigold and someone that they referred to as V, whose identity was unknown to the majority of the inhabitants of Hogwarts, not including Harry, Marigold, Ginny, Luna and Violet Evans, who, whilst being friendly with the members of Nimueh’s Saplings, was not considered by the rest of the school to be one of them.
Despite the mistrust that certain teachers had towards the members of Nimueh’s Saplings, nobody could find any evidence of wrongdoing or pranks that could be attributed to them. After all, surely children could not possibly be responsible for the robes of Hogwarts staff turning different colours every morning for a week. Nor could they have been the ones to terrify the people that had been stealing Luna’s possessions, as they had been nowhere near at the time, or so they claimed, with plenty of evidence to support them. (Fortunately for Luna, Flitwick made sure to assign detention to those that had taken Luna’s possessions away from her and had expressed his severe disappointment to them.) Although it had been initially believed that Nimueh’s Saplings had been behind the appearance of the shrine by the Black Lake, there had been no evidence that it had been the work of their group rather than something done by the spirit of Hogwarts herself.
One summer day during Violet Evans’ sixth year, she was seen sitting by the Black Lake with her friends Harry, Marigold, Ginny and Luna and sharing in their games and laughter, and it was on this day that people began to suspect that they had been wrong and that Violet might in fact be a member of Nimueh’s Saplings. It certainly made sense that Violet was one of them, for she was every bit as tricky and strong-willed as the rest of them, delighted in wordplay, like Marigold, with whom she was as close as a sister, oftentimes had an odd, lilting peculiarity to her tone, like Marigold and Luna, and shared the rest of the group’s love of dance.
On this particular day, the five friends had decided to set aside some of their time to dance in their strange and fascinating manner, which was so different to the types of dance known by most people that had witnessed their dances. Owing to their odd number, sometimes they danced in a group of three and a duo and sometimes in two duos and a solo, swapping partners every so often. On this day, Violet linked arms with Marigold and Harry, and Ginny paired with Luna. The five bowed to each other before they began to dance something that looked like a cross between a Waltz and a Paso Doble, whilst singing in a language that was familiar to none of the spectators. 45 seconds into the dance, Harry switched with Luna so that he was now dancing with Ginny and Luna was with Marigold and Violet, seamlessly integrating it into the dance. The five swapped partners every 45 seconds, in perfect balance and rhythm with each other, contented smiles on their faces as they danced and sang together. They continued dancing until the fiery steeds of Helios had drawn his chariot down to rest in the water, when they stopped, with all the dramatics of Victorian widows, parting with expressions that suggested that they were about to endure unspeakable hardship, which wasn’t exactly incorrect, as the coming year would demonstrate.
Harry escorted Ginny to Gryffindor Tower, mindful of the dangers that were around Hogwarts, although he had no doubt in her ability to fight back, and the two kissed, before Harry left for the Hufflepuff Common Room and dorms, whilst Luna was escorted to Ravenclaw Tower by Violet and Marigold, who then adjourned to their room in the dungeons where the Slytherins lived.
It was, unbeknownst to them, the last time that the five of them would ever be in a state of such contentment for a long time to come.