My thanks to White Angel of Auralon, whose "Hunt" and questionablequotation's "If Looks can Kill" gave me the inspiration and permission to write these short stories.

Rated M for good reason.

Please tell me what you think.

The Black Widow.

The muggle needed a fresh dose of love potion, she judged as she looked at him. It was there in his expression - a lack of a hold over his feelings, a bit dopey, uncertainty about her. If she didn't top up the supply of potion in his blood then he would eventually shake off the potion and come back to his senses. The witch couldn't allow that. Too much was riding on this, far too much. If the muggle shook off control now, then months of work would be lost. Walking over to where her potion stash was, the witch opened the little box containing the vials of the potion while her victim watched her approach him with a smile, taking in her exquisite hour-glass figure, but his smile disappeared when she levelled a long black stick at him - her wand. Waving her wand, Violet incanted, "Imperio!"

She loved this particular curse - it was illegal in many countries and as long as she was careful the spell wouldn't be picked up by any magical country, but sometimes she used mind-controlling spells and potions that were far less powerful. It was the rush she felt every time she used the spell, the feeling of control she got over this so-called powerful muggle that thrilled her no end. That was why she used it.

He was kind of pathetic as her spell instantly claimed his mind, and his eyes appeared vacant. "Come here," she ordered.

The muggle stood up and walked over to her silently and stood to attention like a soldier on a parade ground. He was clearly struggling to overcome the spell, but he couldn't. Violet gave him a brief once over, licking her lips at the sight of his cock before she got control over herself as she stood in front of the muggle in her dark red silk negligee. Delicately she lifted a vial out of the box and handed it out.

"Take the vial."

The muggle took the vial.

"Open it and drink the potion," Violet ordered.

The muggle opened the vial and drank the whole lot in one go and swallowed it down.

Violet flicked her long blond hair back over her shoulder, thankful for the glamour charms she had used to cover her appearance. "Good," she whispered silkily, flicking her wand again and cancelling the spell. With the spell lifted off of him, the man took a deep breath but as soon as his eyes met hers, they misted over with love. Violet waved her wand at him, mentally thinking of the last two minutes as she wiped his memory. By the time the muggle had recovered from the violations dumped in his person, he was looking at her with love but also curiosity.

"What are we doing up, I thought we were going to bed?" he asked.

Violet giggled at the man, putting on the same airhead persona she used to ensnare many a man into her web. "We were always going to do that, sweetie," she cooed at him, thankful the spells on her wrist holster stopped him noticing her wand. She also had to restrain the urge to snort at how accepting the man was of her reply, but she had trained herself as an actress to keep her amusement of him hidden. From all of them, she thought in amusement as she thought of her previous husbands, who were now dead and probably yelling at this guy to not let her get too close. Gently but firmly, she pushed him onto the edge of the bed, lighting pushing his legs apart so then she'd have easy access to when she reached her grand finale.

A coy smile still in place, Violet began to dance. The muggle's eyes widened and a whisper of breath left his mouth as he watched her dance, and she giggled again, though this time there was more amusement laced into the giggle - no matter how many times this fool had seen her dance and perform in front of him, he always had his breath taken away.

Then again it had always been that way. Her well-formed body had given her an edge in seducing men.

Part of Violet wondered if it was because of the love potion she'd been sneaking into him for the last two years, but she didn't care. With her two hands to support her on the bed, on either side of the man, she gyrated like a stripper from a sleazy bar, her mouth only a few millimetres away from his cock, which was becoming more and more rigid as its owner grew excited as she danced, but she knew her hot breath was only adding to the erotic moment as she danced in a silk negligee in high heeled stilettos.

After bending down over the cock again and stopping the dance, Violet took the throbbing member into her mouth and bobbed up and down its length, running her tongue over it and feeling the veins. She didn't need to look up at the muggle as his body shifted in pleasure, and she didn't need to open her eyes since she knew the muggle, her husband, in fact, had fallen back on the bed in bliss as the blowjob hit him. She gently left her teeth graze the soft skin, making him cry out in pleasure.

A few hours later after Violet and her muggle husband had fucked themselves continually, the witch got out of the bed and strode towards the window to look out over the city. She and her husband lived in a penthouse apartment in New York. Violet looked over the twinkling lights of the city, breathing in and out gently while she stood there, stark naked, uncaring about the possibility of any other muggles in the city looking at her body as it stood in the doorway.

She smirked at the thought of them lusting after her. Sometimes she had the curtains left open so they could stare at her as she stripped herself for her husband to entertain him.

"I love being a whore sometimes," she whispered to herself. That was one of the many descriptions Violet would use to describe herself. She had lost her virginity as quickly as possible because she couldn't exactly become a black widow without knowing what would come. Ever since she'd discovered the existence of love potions, she'd known that even that brand of magic wouldn't be enough. She had learnt the need to keep her men entertained and entranced with her before she was ready to act. Though she knew deep down she was as cold-hearted as the next serial killer, though personally, she didn't see herself as a serial killer. She didn't see anything wrong with what she did. She was simply earning a living. If she had to play the long game in order to get what she wanted, what of it?

Violet was a black widow. She was also a witch born from the Potter family in Magical Britain, or at least she had been until she had disowned herself when she'd discovered that her plans for her future were in jeopardy. Violet grimaced as she thought about her reaction to that point in her life, and with that memory came everything else.

The eldest child of the Potter family, Violet had been four years old when Lord Voldemort had attacked them. In his infinite wisdom and his ability to make mistakes without really thinking through his actions because he couldn't look beyond his crooked nose, Albus Dumbledore had dropped her off at her mother's bitter sister, Petunia and her pig of a husband.

Violet closed her eyes as she remembered the abuse heaped on her shoulders for three years before she'd managed to escape. She felt fortunate for two reasons - the first was she was older than a baby, maybe not by much, or she would really have been in trouble, and secondly because she had learnt how to keep out of Vernon Dursley's way, though that hardly worked.

Still, if she hadn't lived with the Dursleys then she would never have found her true calling in life. No, that wasn't just being a slut. When she had been five years old, she had been with Mrs Figg, the cat-obsessed woman in Privet Drive. No-one in the neighbourhood thought highly of the woman, she was a batty old hag who was obsessed with cats. Violet didn't mind cats personally, but Mrs Figg had almost put her off them for life, and then there was the stench of cabbage in her home that made her hate the dump.

Violet had always disliked the woman and she hadn't cared if the old hag knew it or not, but then again it would probably never have registered with her since she always forgot that she had told Violet whenever she'd been unfortunate enough to have to spend a day at her home whenever the Dursleys were doing something with Dudley, so by the time she returned to that filthy cupboard under the stairs her mind would be awash with the names of dozens of cats but would have only pictures of cats in her mind.

It had been rare for Mrs Figg to let Violet have some time to herself and watch a movie or something, but when she had the girl had always jumped at the chance to watch something and listen to something other than the names of some moggies the senile old bat could barely scrape out of her faulty memory. When she had been about five years old, Violet had watched Black Widow with Debra Winger and Theresa Russell. She had watched enthralled as the femme fatale had married one man after another before she killed them for their money.

Violet knew that the Dursleys would be overjoyed to keep her from having a life of her own, so she had made a plan to escape their clutches. It had taken her over a month to prepare, to think of a way out. The best opportunity of escape was whenever Petunia escorted herself and Dudley to the primary school, so she'd taken it when the woman had her back turned. After that, it was easy to escape. She had stolen some money and headed off to London after changing her clothes. After being taken into a foster home, Violet had changed her name so no-one could send her back to the Dursleys, but the foster home allowed her to grow as a person and since no-one knew of her past she was allowed to be her own person. She joined a few gangs in London and became an able pickpocket and thief. She also used the time to study black widow serial killers so she could study their tactics.

All the time Violet had realised she had some power that no-one could possibly understand, and she didn't know where it came from. She never told anybody as she began using the ability to do all kinds of things, though she was limited in how much she could actually do.

And then she had discovered she was a witch. Violet didn't believe in god, but she had to admit there was something almost pre-ordained by the meeting with a muggle-born witch and wizard who were living in the magical world but had ventured out into the muggle world for a few days, and they found her practising magic. Assuming she was a muggle-born herself like them, the kindly couple took Violet into the magical world and helped her find her way around (the story was a little more complicated than that, but it was simpler to understand it like this) and because she had an extra year before she was due to attend Hogwarts she made secret arrangements when she discovered the truth of her biological family.

While she was at Gringotts after she'd found out how to get into the alley, she had discovered the blocks placed on her magic and had had them removed. She had found out how to alter her appearance and used that to disguise herself so then no-one could join the dots.

Another thing she discovered was a marriage contract between herself and someone called Ronald Weasley. Violet growled under her breath - it had been years since it had happened, but the anger she had felt towards someone for deciding her future like her own opinion didn't matter was still annoying.

The Potters thought she was missing and with the marriage contract over her head, Violet had made the decision to disown herself from the Potter family. The goblins performed the ritual and Violet Lily Potter became simply Violet Cantrell after one of the characters in Stephen Coonts Saucer novels. Her new name was simple and straightforward.

Violet went to Hogwarts three years ahead of her so-called brother, Adam and was sorted into Ravenclaw house. The sorting hat had wanted to sort her into Slytherin due to her ambitious and rather cutthroat nature, but around that point, she had heard of the stigma the house had received thanks to Voldemort's actions. Violet had kept her head down, hoping all the time Dumbledore just left her to her own devices and didn't pay much attention to her. She had dyed her hair blond as part of a whim, and it seemed to have worked. She wasn't called up by the old fool and he didn't spend any of his time following her around, he seemed to have left her alone for the most part.

Shivering slightly though she didn't really register the cold, Violet remembered the dramas that came out of her 'brother's' arrival at the school, but as she was three years ahead of Adam she didn't pay much attention to him since she was learning all she could about magic, especially love potions. Unfortunately, the potions master at the school was a right bastard, but what made it worse was he didn't really teach her or anybody else for that matter the intricacies of potion making. Violet would never have learnt how to brew the types of potions she utilised if she had stayed under Snape's wonderful tutelage. She hired a tutor to help her learn how to brew potions, a lovely woman who was apparently in high demand because of what Snape was doing at Hogwarts.

Even before she was sorted into Ravenclaw, Violet loved knowledge and absolutely hated it when it was either restricted or it was being deliberately withheld. Violet had never understood why Snape was allowed to stay at Hogwarts with his attitude and the way he acted. If he were still alive then she would very happily have killed him.

It was academic since Snape had been dead for so long now. Violet had never really paid much attention to the so-called adventures her 'brother' found himself in, but she had followed him and kept track of what he was doing. She may not have been his sister in name or whatever else witches and wizards put stock in families, but Adam was still her brother in her mind. And that was what mattered. She didn't care for magical traditions, but she wasn't as stupid as Hermione Granger was who couldn't seem to keep her gob shut.

When Violet left Hogwarts during Adam's third year, she had gone straight into Curse-Breaker training and had quickly become one of their best Curse-breakers, you would have thought she wouldn't have had the time to go out into the muggle world and find muggle men to seduce and entice with the help of love potions. The answer was her bosses didn't care what she did with her time, and they definitely did not care at all about her extracurricular activities, so she was free to do what she wanted. Violet was even allowed to plunder some of the tombs in whatever country she was in, but as long as she brought back tonnes of treasure, the goblins didn't care. It was understandably amazing just how many other curse-breakers pocketed old scrolls, gems, things like that.

When the war between the so-called "light" and the "dark" broke out (it never failed to amaze her how dramatic the magical world was), she was safely learning how to hack into cursed tombs, while all the time using potions on muggle men while under disguise and finding out the secrets of the rich so then she could either blackmail them or she would later marry one of them so she could take their fortunes.

Violet didn't really pay that much attention to the magical world's situation - the pureblood supremacist philosophy was so boring and tedious that she only paid the minimum amount of attention to it whenever the subject had come up at Hogwarts.

But she did pay attention when something surprising happened.

Violet's brow furrowed as she remembered the scene…..

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Walking through Diagon Alley was an eye-opener to Violet as she walked through it. The shopping alley in Magical London was virtually a ghost town. Many of the shops were barred and boarded up with signs saying "CLOSED FOR BUSINESS" though a few of the shops, particularly Fortescue's Ice-cream parlour looked like they'd been torched in a riot.

There weren't that many witches and wizards shopping today, but their heads were darting about in all directions as if just waiting for the Death Eaters to leap out of hiding and strike them down. Violet walked through the alley, completely uncaring that she was standing out in her black jacket and white T-shirt, dark purple cargo pants and trainers that screamed muggle. In fact, many of the people in the alley frowned at her state of dress, but since she knew what the reason was she didn't pay it much mind, though she was aware that her style would be asking for trouble.

But the Death Eaters would be getting a painful surprise if they attacked her. Violet may not have been keeping up to date with the news in her home country, but she knew the light was being their usual stupid selves by not fighting fire with fire in the stupid belief they would be lowering themselves if they killed their enemies.

Violet didn't really care for those rules. She had killed her own fair share of people already, though she hadn't used a wand in battle though she had learnt from her mistakes in the Room of Requirement after she'd asked the House-elves in the castle where she could learn how to fight and protect herself. Completely nonchalant about the aura surrounding the alley, Violet walked into Gringotts. She was in there for over an hour, but when she came out into the lobby she was surprised to see Adam Potter trying to speak to one of the tellers. Giving in to her curiosity, Violet headed close to the teller.

"I have my key," the boy was saying. "I need to get away from here!"

Violet narrowed her eyes. What did he mean by get away from here? She took a closer look at the boy and saw at once he was looking stressed out like he had been going only on a few minutes of sleep, and not getting much to sleep. He looked like he was almost on the verge of collapsing.

The teller was stubborn. "I am afraid your current vault will do no good for you, Mr Potter," he said, "the contents will not help you buy an international portly."

Violet gasped in surprise.

Adam, being the stupid boy he was at times, went on in a harsh whisper. "I am the kid supposed to destroy Vol-I mean, You-Know-Who. But Dumbledore didn't teach me how to fight, my dad and uncles helped but they're nowhere near You-Know-Who's level. I need to leave so I can train properly."

"I'm afraid I can't help you, Mr Potter," the goblin repeated, but he leaned closer and hissed. "Perhaps if you and your family had focused more, this would not be happening."

Seeing the teller's attitude was about to make her former brother explode, Violet stepped in. "Excuse me, Master Teller," she said, announcing her presence and stepping forwards. "If he's bothering you, I can take him out."

The teller looked relieved. It was clear to Violet he was about to summon some goblin guards and get them to kick the young wizard out, something Violet knew would not help the young boy out. But before Adam could open his mouth to protest, Violet had already taken her wand out and narrowed her gaze at him, planting one of her hands on his narrow shoulder and gently led him away from the teller.

"There are thirteen other witches and wizards in this bank," she whispered to him, "did you really think the so-called Boy Who Lived would be unnoticeable?"

"What are you going to do to me, take me to Vol-You-Know-Who?"

Violet laughed scornfully at the boy's lack of imagination, the simplistic view of the world he had was enough to annoy her for a while. "If I were a Death Eater, I wouldn't have used diplomacy to take you away from that goblin. We wouldn't be having this conversation."

Adam stopped and she sighed in irritation. "What is it? Surprised that the world isn't divided like Dumbledore probably told you it was into Dark Lords, Death Eaters, and the so-called good guys? Get used to it, kid. Now come along, we need to get to the entrance so I can cast a glamour charm on you, you need to get back to Hogwarts-," she said.

"I can't. I'm on a mission Dumbledore put me on," Adam interrupted.

Violet sighed again. "A mission that would've taken you outside Britain?" she pointed out. "I wonder how the rest of the magical world would've felt if their precious saviour left them in their hour of need." She mocked him.

"I don't care what they think," Adam sulked as they headed for the entrance of the bank. "They've loved me, hated me, scorned me. They don't realise I don't want to kill Voldemort-,"

"Hey, what do you mean by that?" Violet swung the boy around violently while at the same time wondering how long they had before trouble really came - it was clear Potter hadn't bothered to think any of this through, but the longer they were here the easier it would be for him to be tracked down.

Adam looked away. "I can't tell you," he replied.

Violet roughly grabbed the boy by the chin and ignored his cries and looked him deeply in the eyes. "Listen to me, kid," she snapped. "I heard you talk to the teller about skipping the country to find help. I bet you wish you didn't walk around the school with your head in the clouds."

Without giving the boy a chance to resist, she grabbed him and mentally thought about the transfer point outside her temporary abode.

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Adam was furious when they arrived at her home, but Violet paid him no mind as she shoved him onto a couch. Part of her was worried about the alert the wards had given out, and she guessed Adam was carrying something dangerous but she pushed that aside. "Sit down and relax," she said softly into his ear and went off to prepare some food. Adam must have been hungry because when Violet looked up, sensing someone watching her, she found him looking at her and the meat cooking on the cooker.

"Hungry?" she asked.

Adam nodded, his mouth littering watering. "Yeah," he replied thickly. "I've been in a tent with….Ron and Hermione for the last three months, and we've had little to eat, and Ron eats like a pig and has no self-restraint."

Violet didn't need to ask him what he meant by that. A few days after his arrival everyone knew Ron Weasley was a pig and he ate like one. "Speaking of your hangers-on, where are they? I didn't see them in the bank."

Adam sighed. "They left," he admitted quietly. "They left because the mission Dumbledore put us on was getting to all of us, it didn't help the Horcrux was driving us mad- oh no," he groaned as he realised he'd said too much.

But Violet's reaction startled him. "Did you just say Horcruxes?" she gaped.

"Yeah," Adam replied as he realised he may as well get it out into the open. "Vol-You-know-Who-."

"If you're worried about the so-called taboo curse, don't," Violet interrupted him calmly. "The wards on my home were set up before the Taboo curse was put into effect. And the spells I used will make sure any uninvited guests are thrown into the middle of the North Sea. Are you saying Voldemort created Horcruxes?"

"Yes he did," Adam replied. "According to Dumbledore, he made more than one."

Violet gaped at him, she was so stunned by the fact that snake-faced creep had created more than one of those soul pieces without looking to the long-term consequences of his actions the chicken almost got burnt to a crisp. "Listen, if Dumbledore thought there were a few of them, why didn't he do something about them?"

"I don't know," Adam spat in annoyance, annoyance clearly aimed at Dumbledore. That surprised Violet since she had seen with her own two eyes and heard with her own two ears how much the boy worshipped the ground the old wizard walked on.

She came to a decision. "Okay," she said at last. "You and I will talk at dinner, and we will have a crack at those Horcruxes, okay?"

Adam looked at her strangely. "I don't even know you."

Violet laughed as she turned back to the dinner to see how it was going. "My name is Violet Cantrell," she replied, giving her new name freely. "I was in my fourth year when you arrived at Hogwarts."

"What house were you in?"

One of the problems she had with Hogwarts was how nearly every other witch and wizard who attended the place put so much importance on what house you were in. "Ravenclaw," she replied. "Now make yourself useful, grab a knife and fork for the pair of us from that drawer," she gestured to one of the drawers, "and set the table."

Adam did so, but the noise he made nearly drove Violet mad. When they ate their simple meal of chicken, rice and vegetables, Adam and Violet talked.

"You know about Horcruxes?"

"I've come across them in my line of work. I'm a Curse-Breaker. My job means I have to travel the world, and I help others break through into the tombs and chambers scattered around. The Horcrux is not an old magical idea, and every country that has an ancient magical history would have their own version of a Horcrux though it's the same principle - someone incredibly stupid would split their soul and place the piece into a container in the hopes it makes you immortal. It doesn't."

"It doesn't? But Voldemort wants to be immortal, and Dumbledore believes he made more than one!"

Violet shook her head. "Do you know how many people have made Horcruxes over the centuries? Hundreds. Everywhere you go in countries like Egypt, Peru, China, and even in Greece you will find a Horcrux that dates back hundreds of years, but their makers are long since dead. Splitting your soul, contrary to what people in their infinite wisdom might believe, doesn't make you immortal. It's been proven over the centuries that the true effects of the ritual are not really guaranteed. You can split your soul and you might be able to live a hundred or so years after everybody you've known and loved over the years has died, or your lifespan might have been sliced in half."

"Can you destroy the Horcrux I've got?" Adam asked excitedly.

"You've got one of them, and it's in my home?" Violet asked, mentally slapping herself for not bothering to make the connection to what the wards had picked up.

"Yes, do you want me to get it?" Adam was about to stand up but Violet stopped him. "No, it will take a few days to prepare the ritual to drain all of them, and I don't have an amulet we can use to contain the soul pieces."

"Drain all of the soul pieces? You mean we only needed to ask a curse breaker for help?" Adam asked in surprise. Violet nodded, wondering where he was going with this.

"I can't believe this," Adam whispered in surprise as he looked at his half-eaten meal. "All these years Dumbledore could've asked Bill Weasley for help, but even when the information was there he didn't tell anyone, didn't say a thing. All of this would never have happened. We could have gotten rid of Voldemort years ago before he attacked me and my sister died. What was he thinking?"

Violet was surprised Adam knew about his sister, namely her. "Albus Dumbledore is a senile old man," she said, not really caring if she offended Adam. He needed to hear this, he needed to learn how to stand on his own two feet. "But what I don't get is why you and your friends have been lumbered with this mission when experienced witches and wizards should be doing this? Where are your parents in all this?"

"They don't know about the mission," Adam admitted. "Ron and Hermione and I were told to get out of Hogwarts secretly so the Death Eaters couldn't track us down. Dumbledore said he and the Order would keep them busy while we carried on with the task, but Ron and Hermione were frustrated not just with the lack of progress but also because even when we had one of the Horcruxes we couldn't figure out a way to destroy it. They both thought that since Dumbledore had told me about them, then I'd know the answer. But I don't. I spent a year pouring through Voldemort's memories, seeing his past so I could prepare for the inevitable, and all the time he never told me anything I could use."

"He spent a whole year showing you memories instead of showing you in just one or two days?" Violet shook her head. "How stupid is he? Where are they now, Ron and Hermione?"

"I don't know, but it's likely they've told the Order about the mission," Adam replied.

Violet shook her head at how amateurish Dumbledore and his group were. "Listen, I can help you deal with the Horcruxes, that's the easy part. We only need the full moon to help us boost the power of the ritual and we only need to make a simple potion and the soul pieces are in our grasp. But there's the problem of how we're going to drain the soul pieces."

"Drain them, what good would that do?"

"Horcruxes are still connected to the magic of the moron who split their soul," Violet explained. "It doesn't matter how many times you split your soul, the connections are still there. The wizards magic will still be pumped into the soul fragments to keep them alive, like a heart delivering blood through the body. If something happens to the body, or the wizard or witch dies then the 'blood' is stopped, the Horcrux loses a bit of its essence, but not a lot. If you want something to use as a net to stay alive, it's not worth it."

"So, from what you're saying, the Horcruxes are worthless as a way to become immortal," Adam whispered, clearly disgusted with the notion Albus Dumbledore had spent all these years doing nothing, even when the evidence for the Horcruxes was given to him.

"Yes."

Adam shook his head as something entered his mind. "But if that's true then how did Voldemort manage to survive? He was torn from his body in '81 and was left wondering as a wraith. How could he have survived if the Horcruxes don't work like Dumbledore and he thought?"

Violet sighed, running a hand through her hair as she spooned some rice into her mouth, her mind racing as she thought about everything she knew about the Dark Lord. She couldn't believe what Voldemort had done. You would have thought someone as powerful as he was would have had the common sense to look for other means to become immortal. She rubbed her eyes when she realised her knowledge of Voldemort and his followers was practically non-existent. Wait…. followers.

She leaned forwards, startling her guest. "Adam, have you ever seen these Dark Marks the Death Eaters have on their arms?" she asked urgently.

Adam was staring at her in bemusement. "Yeah, I have, why?" he asked.

"This is important. What did Voldemort do with them?"

"Well, when Pettigrew had given his body back, Voldemort pressed his wand into the Mark, and it turned black. Why, what are you getting at?"

Violet closed her eyes. "I think I know how Voldemort planned his immortality," she replied before she opened her eyes again. "Go and sit in the living room," she instructed, "leave me to do the washing up. Put the Horcrux you've got on the coffee table and leave it alone. Okay?"

Adam gave her a strange look but he did as she told him.

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After Violet had done the washing up, she joined him in the living room after spending two minutes in her small library, and she came back with a heavy old volume. "Exploration has always been an interest of mine," Violet said as she sat down and flicked through the pages, "ever since I was a kid. I loved exploring places in muggle London, Manchester, Bristol, Brighton, Glasgow, and New York. I still do. But when I fully fledged Curse-Breaker, I had thousands of doors open for me. I was visiting countries, seeing both the magical and non-magical worlds, but I picked this book up in a magical district in Italy."

"This book is an account of a crew of magical explorers. They had constructed, or grown, a ship made from pure magical crystal. This crystal soaked up all the magical energy around it, so it didn't need refuelling. I have read how these explorers encountered communities in Africa, India, Russia, Thailand, and Australia long before Europe touched them."

Violet flicked through the pages, keeping one eye on Adam who was clearly wondering what she was getting at and what this had to with Voldemort. "When I neared the end, I found something really interesting. You see, some of their crew had gotten sick. They were dying, and the captain was upset because he had sworn they would all return home. So, he did a bit of research, and he found out that something was wrong with their magical cores but because he was too far away from a place where his crew would be properly healed, he had to improvise. He created a magical tattoo which was a connection between the ship itself and them. It took a bit of time, but he managed to create it."

"The crew members recovered, and they were stronger than ever because they were using the magic channelled into them by the ship, and the captain found a way to regulate the flow so their bodies weren't burnt out by the increase in magic. Eventually, the entire crew had the same tattoo placed on them so they could receive the same flow of magic, this was done after a few of them had contracted the same illness as their friends. The same spell used for the tattoo survived, but it was perverted over the years by Dark lords who wanted to live forever; they simply marked their followers with a brand, and they could have kept going if they weren't all slaughtered."

She looked at Adam, who was looking enthralled at the story. "Sound familiar to you?"

"The Dark Mark," Adam whispered. "It wasn't the Horcruxes which kept Voldemort from dying all those years ago when he attacked me and my family, it was the Death Eaters themselves. Even if one or two of them were left if Dumbledore had allowed the Order to kill them, he would have come back."

Violet nodded. "Yes. The Dark Marks are tied into Voldemort's magic, whatever there is left that is, and they feed the magic of the morons who allowed themselves to be branded in such a manner into the Horcruxes and Voldemort's body. If the Horcruxes are drained, they will drain the Death Eaters as well."

Adam looked at her funnily for a second. "They'll become squibs? Muggles?" He asked figuring out what was going to happen to Voldemort's followers.

"Talk about irony," Violet grinned but her grin faded. "Not all of them will become that way, some of them will probably die from the strain. The question is will you actually care about that, or will just say they made their beds and they should lie in them?"

"Definitely. The Death Eaters have been given so many chances it is not funny," Adam replied before he looked down. "Everyone thinks I'm like Dumbledore, that I wouldn't willingly want anyone to die on my watch. I don't like the thought of murder, Violet. But I'm a realist. When Voldemort came back he had someone murdered, a friend. He then tried to kill me, and those so-called 'repentant' Death Eaters laughed as the bastard tortured me. When I fought them in the Ministry, they were stunned so many times - I must have stunned the same Death Eater a dozen times, each time he got up. We're not going to win this war by using stunners. My parents think the same - ever since my sister was killed by Voldemort, they have shifted in their views; they tried to have the Death Eaters, all of them, pushed through the Veil or given the Dementor's kiss."

"Do I care about the Death Eaters? No. They deserve all they get, and while people like Dumbledore or Molly Weasley can dream, they have no place in a war. Let's do it. What do we need to do?"

Violet grinned at him again. "I always thought you liked licking Dumbledore's boots," she said softly before getting right down to business. "Right, I need to check this Horcrux."

Taking out her wand, Violet waved it over the locket Adam had placed on the table. After a moment she looked at the boy. "It's definitely a Horcrux, I just needed to be sure. It makes things easier."

"What do we need to do?" Adam asked excitedly, and Violet could now see that despite all the accolades the boy had received all his life he just wanted it all to be over. She couldn't blame him.

"The first thing we need to do is prepare a ritual to take place on a full moon," Violet explained. "The magic created during the event will help enrich the ritual and help us deal with the Horcruxes in one night. We can do this on any night of the month, of course, but a full moon's enrichment of the ritual will boost the potency of the ceremony. It's a shame you didn't tell the goblins about the Horcruxes. True they would have punished you for taking one of them into their bank, but they'd have gladly gotten rid of it."

"Dumbledore told me to keep them secret, he says they're Voldemort's only weakness and if he ever found out he might take steps to protect them," Adam said though now he said it dismissively now he knew the Horcruxes were completely different to what he'd previously thought them to be. "But why do the goblins hate Horcruxes so much?" he added curiously.

"Horcruxes are seen as abominations, created by an act of murder that splits the soul. The best way to create a Horcrux is to murder an innocent soul," Violet explained grimly, her face turning green as she thought about it.

Adam looked at her in disgusted horror as he worked out what she meant. "An innocent soul?" he repeated. "You don't mean….?" he trailed off, hoping he was clearly wrong.

"A child, the younger the better. Murdering children is the best way to split a soul," Violet replied grimly before she looked thoughtful. "I have heard accounts where people - muggles and wizards - who have killed someone in the past describe feeling they had cut their soul to pieces, but all that's happened is they've done something their conscience wouldn't allow. In the case of a Horcrux, it's true."

Violet looked away for a second clearly lost in thought. Adam watched her, wondering what she was thinking. He had learnt more from Violet about Horcruxes in one day than he'd ever done with Dumbledore.

"There's another reason the goblins hate Horcruxes," Violet said suddenly. "Priceless treasures have been desecrated or destroyed because the morons who created them couldn't find anything more expendable to use to house the piece, while some so-called experts believe the crap written in books by authors who didn't have a clue what they were writing about. The Darkest Arts is the best example of bull-shit you could ever hope to encounter in a book. So many idiots believe that the best way to destroy a Horcrux is to destroy the container. While that method works, it's not elegant. That's the brute force approach, and while it works there are better ways to deal with the Horcruxes that only require a bit more patience so you can do the actual research."

Adam shook his head. "That sounds like Dumbledore to me," he said, surprising Violet with his comment. "He had suspected Voldemort had made the Horcruxes, but he sat on the knowledge for decades, never once trying to find anything definitive out. It wasn't until recently I found out he'd been waiting for Slughorn to give him a memory of Voldemort as a teenager, asking about the Horcruxes and how to create them that I realised he could have taken the knowledge at any time."

"What's this? Who's Slughorn?" Violet whispered in surprise.

For the next ten minutes, Adam told her the story. He told her how Dumbledore had held the remains of one of the Horcruxes, though years later Adam found out that not only did the old headmaster already guess what Voldemort had done, but he had spent years waiting for one of the old professors who'd taught Voldemort as a teenager to come forward with a memory about the meeting.

Violet shook her head in surprise. "I can understand why Slughorn would want to hide the memory," she whispered at last, surprising Adam a little bit. "Horcruxes are taboo in many magical countries; even creating one is like asking for your death. It's an instant death sentence in countries like Egypt and China, but no-one in any of their right minds would even think of creating one. From the sounds of it, Voldemort found a minute reference to a Horcrux in the Hogwarts library and believed that was the key to immortality, but that's stupid. The Board of Governors has spent decades holding back the funds to properly replace the books in that library, among other things where funds are badly needed, like those broomsticks which are no good for anything except kindling. But now I've got proof of Dumbledore's stupidity."

"What do you mean?"

"Well in other countries, the Horcruxes are taught to schoolchildren, not the ritual itself, but their general history. For instance, in magical China, there was a warlord who had split his soul twice, and he went mad. From what I've heard, the warlord split his soul because he had heard of a reference to them, only unlike Voldemort, he had access to more concrete information about them. The Chinese people had a hard time mitigating the worst of the mess while keeping the muggles unaware of what was happening. The splitting of his soul was done so crudely, and the warlord was so mad he boasted about what he had done, that he was immortal and soon the entire world would bow before him, but quite a few of his army deserted," Violet explained. "They wanted power, but they had become so terrified by his madness they had become frightened he would turn on them. They told the Chinese ministry where to find the Horcruxes. After that, it was easy to get rid of them. But the damage he had wrought, the devastation and the loss of life was so great the Chinese gave themselves the task to learn more about the Horcruxes and their properties. Now, their country teaches the history of them and what they can and can't do. Chinese witches and wizards learn about the horrors of the war graphically through the preserved memories of people who witnessed the horrors the warlord caused. They also show the memories of the harm they've caused in other countries."

"The Chinese are one of the oldest countries that practice magic, and they go to a lot of trouble to make sure their children learn how Horcruxes work and how to destroy them. They're not the only ones, but there are dozens of countries who are afraid to teach them, while some deem them 'dark' and as a result, the people in those countries are the ones most likely to have someone create a Horcrux," Violet explained.

"And Britain is one of them," Adam observed.

It wasn't a question, but Violet answered it like one. "Yes. Many countries in Europe are nervous about teaching anything like the Horcruxes at their schools, and you can't blame them. But some of them do. Quite a few of them have learnt the hard way that the best way to deal with Horcruxes is to know about them, but if you ever want a country so stupid and blind, its Britain. The Ministry is so lazy when it comes to researching magic that's so ancient they've labelled a great deal of it as dark. To make matters worse, Dumbledore has made it easier for people like Voldemort to come across old magic no-one really understands, and that's where things go wrong. Voldemort may have learnt about the ritual by accident, but it was Dumbledore's fault for not making sure the students understood the risks; I doubt any wannabe Dark Lord seeking immortality would want to split his soul, and magic, and risk it all being drained away."

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Adam was surprised when the potion was revealed to be childishly simple and he brought it up with Violet on the night of the full moon. The woman had told him that the potion was simple because, in Ancient Egypt, the country being so arid had made it very hard for more complex roots and herbs to be grown. He had been waiting for three days while Violet had gathered the ingredients, preparing the cauldron and burning runes into the basin with her wand. When the night of the ritual came, the potion was bubbling nicely with a silver necklace in the cauldron as the light from the moon shone down on them both. The potion had been soaking the amulet for two days now, and on the night of the full-moon, the ritual was ready. The boy watched silently as Violet placed some white and dark red crystals in carefully chosen spots in a circle around the cauldron.

"What are they for?"

"They're magical crystals, they create a focal point for the ritual," she explained before she moved back to the cauldron. Violet took Adam's hands into her own, and together they began chanting the Ancient Egyptian spell, holding their wand over the cauldron where the amulet was waiting. They chanted the spell for five minutes when they both felt a tugging on their magic as the ritual began to work. The locket containing the Horcrux was the first to go. The physical casing for the Horcrux shook angrily as the soul fragment tried in vain to fight the effects, but it was hopeless and there was a terrible scream as the soul piece flew into the amulet in the potion.

To Violet and Adam's mutual surprise, they felt as if their skulls were being ripped open, and they watched as two small shards of Voldemort's soul shot of their heads and flew into the cauldron.

"Violet, what-?" Adam asked.

"Keep chanting, we have to keep the chanting going and keep the ritual strong," she hissed and she kept the chant going.

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Violet sighed as she thought about what happened next.

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The ritual had taken over an hour and a half to go before the amulet had collected all of the soul pieces. The largest piece was Voldemort himself, and it flew into the amulet screaming and threatening both her and Adam all the way - it never failed to amaze Violet with how stupid the local Dark Lord was; he had been torn out of his body forcefully, and he couldn't break free despite probably fighting every inch of the way to the amulet, and yet he still thought threats would get him what he wanted.

When the ritual was over and no more pieces of Voldemort's soul flew towards them, Violet and Adam suddenly collapsed to the ground and fell asleep. Violet woke up first, feeling physically exhausted and weak. Spying their wands on the grass, she picked them up and pocketed them before she picked Adam up. It wasn't exactly the magical way to do something, but she was so physically tired and she hadn't brought out any potions that could boost her strength because she had spent all of her time preparing the potion and the ritual.

Carrying Adam was a chore, but she managed it through by the time she got him back to the house she had to find the energy to go back outside and gather up the cauldron, the crystals and the amulet. The amulet went straight inside a lead box. Heading for the potions cupboard, she got out a few potions and downed them quickly, and felt her strength come back, but she still sat on the couch and went to sleep.

When she woke up she found Adam looking at her funnily. "How come you had one of Voldemort's Horcruxes in your head?" he asked.

Violet had had no intention of revealing her secret to Adam even if he deserved to hear it, but he had seen too much for her to keep it secret. "I didn't want to tell you this," she began, deciding that this was a good thing since she'd been holding it inside her for years. "My name is Violet Cantrell, but my birth name is Violet Lily Potter."

Adam gasped, but before he could utter a word she interrupted. "I was your sister."

"What do you mean you were my sister? You are my sister-," Adam began but she interrupted him again. "I disowned myself from the Potter family after I found a marriage contract between myself and your piggy friend, Ronald."

"You were contracted to Ron?" Adam gasped before he shook his head. "I don't get this. You're not making sense."

Violet sighed. "Okay. I was four years old when we were attacked on Halloween, and before you ask no I don't remember much, and I'm not going to tell you since it's not relevant now. But one minute I was with loving parents, the next I was living in a cupboard under the stairs and forced to be a slave to Vernon and Petunia Dursley."

"Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon? Mum and dad have told me about them, they say they're the worst magic haters there are," Adam said in horror.

"They are. They have this desire to be normal above anything else," Violet said, "they don't realise that normal people don't put children into cupboards and mentally abuse them. I was there for three years while the filthy muggles told me magic didn't exist. I knew differently, I had been growing up with magic for three years of my life, so I was aware it existed. I wasn't going to let two filthy, powerless, inferior muggles tell me differently."

Violet took a deep breath, seeing the look on her 'brother's face, and knew she was scaring him. "Anyway, I found a way to escape and I headed into muggle London. If I could've done, I would've gone back to the Wizarding world. I spent two months on the streets of London, learning how to be strong before I allowed myself to be taken into a children's home. Professor McGonagall told me about the magical world, unaware I knew about it already, and I learnt about my family on my second visit to Gringotts. I also found out I was 'Killed in Action' and yet there was a marriage contract, made by Albus Dumbledore himself."

"Dumbledore knew you were alive?" Adam gaped. He had been listening with horror as the story went on, but he was so taken aback by it he remained silent.

"Yeah, he did. He placed me with the Dursleys. I had the goblins check me out, see if there were any blocks on my mind or my magic, and I found a dozen bindings. I had them removed and I disowned myself from the family to escape the contract."

Adam looked at her in horror. "You didn't have to do that," he whispered. "You could've contacted mum and dad, they'd have sorted it out and made Dumbledore pay for what he'd done."

"I could've done," Violet nodded in agreement. "But then again I didn't know what Dumbledore would've done if I revealed what he'd done to me. I wanted to murder the old bastard but in my own way. I also didn't know how Lily and James would've reacted if I'd revealed myself. I also didn't know what others would have done. I value my independence. I had plans for my life, plans which other people could interfere with. Besides I was frightened of the marriage contract."

"I changed my name formerly to Violet Cantrell, and I entered Ravenclaw house at Hogwarts. Everyone thought I was a muggle-born, and since I'd dyed my hair, no one identified me as Lily Potter's daughter," Violet went on, deliberately calling herself Lily's daughter to soothe her 'brother's' feelings.

Adam seemed mollified a little, but he had to ask something important. "But why didn't you tell me when I came to Hogwarts?"

Violet chuckled. "I didn't know if you knew about me," she lied; she had had no intention of telling Adam or her 'parents' anything. She liked her life as it was, and being taken back by her parents would've meant she would never have become a black widow. "Besides, I did keep an eye on you. I might've disowned myself from the family, but that meant nothing to me. I was a little annoyed about that business with the dragon in your first year; surely you could've come up with a better idea than that? Using an invisibility cloak, not burning the note? Why did you keep it, were you planning on framing it? But when I left I focused on my career path, a curse-breaker."

Adam listened to the story and he was silent for a good three minutes before he looked back up at her. "Were you ever going to tell me what happened?" he asked.

"You mean in general, or while you were with me? I don't know. In general, I had planned to just be another casualty of the first war. Something for the masses to realise the fame that follows you and the rest of the Potter family were more of a curse than a blessing," Violet replied, "I know it sounds cruel, but it was for a good reason. In any case, if I had told you then the Weasels may have tried to enforce the marriage contract, whether it was destroyed or not. I couldn't let that happen. While you were with me….. I didn't know I had one of those Horcruxes in my head."

She was telling the truth. She had learnt occlumency during her first couple of years at Hogwarts. But when Voldemort returned, she had developed terrible headaches that she blocked off with her occlumency barriers, and she used magical devices to ensure her barriers remained up.

Violet could see that Adam still wasn't happy about her story. "What happens now?" he asked. "Are you going to wipe my memory, send me back to my parents and my two sisters who have grown up hearing you're dead?"

Violet bit her lip, inwardly she was furious at Adam for pushing this down her throat. "I don't know," she confessed.

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In the present day, Violet snorted as she remembered how she had crept into her brother's bedroom with her wand outstretched. She had been tossing and turning in her bed for hours, trying to fall asleep but failing because they had both raised good points. A part of Violet wanted some kind of relationship with her former parents, but another part was frightened they might do something stupid despite the disownment.

They might interfere with her life, or inspire others to do the same. If anyone in the magical world found out about her plans to ensnare muggles with love potions and then kill them for money or dose them up to reveal their secrets then she would probably be sentenced to life imprisonment.

And even if she did let them know, she didn't know what they'd do if they found out she was their daughter and had deliberately disowned herself simply because two fools had decided to play games with her life.

Violet stood above her brother for an hour, trying to decide when she was surprised when he suddenly asked her in a tired voice.

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"If you're going to do it then do it, I won't fight you."

"How long have you been awake?"

"All the time. I couldn't sleep, it doesn't help when your 'sister' can't sleep either, and tosses and turns in the next room," Adam replied.

Cursing the thinness of the walls, Violet sighed. "I have spent my entire life since that night trying to be independent. And now…. I want to keep that independence, but I do feel bad about walking away from them."

She didn't say anything about wanting to become a femme fatale. They probably wouldn't understand it.

"You know I could ask them to keep it secret," Adam suggested. "I could tell them you helped me but I discovered it by accident, and that you just want to be left alone."

"Would they listen to that?" Violet was sceptical.

"Course they will."

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Violet sighed as she remembered the meeting with the Order of the Phoenix.

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It had been a while since she had been at the school, but Hogwarts looked like how Violet remembered it. But she was astonished by the fact a war was going on and how Dumbledore had turned the school into his Headquarters, there had been no fortifications to the school. She put it out of her mind and followed Adam to the front gates and they walked inside.

The Order of the Phoenix had meetings in Dumbledore's office which was the safest place in the castle for their meetings, but Violet was amazed and annoyed by Dumbledore's significant lack of action during the war. They found Professor McGonagall just as she was about to go up into the office, and after a few minutes of surprised greetings, the professor let them into the office. She was reluctant to do that but then Violet had told her bluntly about the Horcruxes and what Dumbledore had done. Needless to say, McGonagall had not been happy about that.

When the trio made it to the office, Violet and Adam were both surprised by the sight of Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger sitting at the table.

"So you're both in the Order, are you?" Adam snapped, but Violet placed a hand on his shoulder. "Don't, they're not worth it," she replied.

By now the Order members had noticed her presence. "Who are you?"

"Why did you let someone who might be a Death Eater into our meeting where she could kill us, Minerva?"

Violet sneered at them. "Oh please," she snapped. "The world isn't divided into who is a Death Eater and who isn't. Besides would I bring this here if I were a Death Eater?"

Out of her jacket, she pulled out Slytherin's locket.

Instantly Dumbledore was on his feet, and she noticed the blackened hand. What the hell had he done? "Adam, I told you to keep it secret-," he said but Violet interrupted. "You mean the Horcruxes that moron Voldemort created?"

"Horcruxes?" Everyone turned in surprise when a young man she recognised as Bill Weasley whispered the word in shock. "Why in Merlin's name would he create one of those things-?"

"Not one, Bill. He created more than one, and this idiot," Violet gestured at Dumbledore who was frozen in surprise, "not only knew about the Horcruxes, but he sent Adam, your brother and the stupid little girl out to hunt them down and destroy them."

Bill Weasley gaped at Dumbledore. "You knew about the Horcruxes and you didn't tell me? You knew he created more than one, and you didn't tell me, a trained curse breaker who deals with these things on a daily basis? I could have drained the fucking things instead of sitting in on these meetings where you talk and talk-,"

Dumbledore looked really pale now, but Bill wasn't finished. "I learnt like all Curse-Breakers how to deal with these things. I've performed the ritual several times. Why didn't you ask for help?"

"Bill, that's no way to speak of Professor Dumbledore-," Molly Weasley shouted, but Bill ignored her. He was looking at Violet. "You've drained them?"

"Yes, all we need to do is connect the amulet to the wards and the magic of Lord Voldemort will be fed into the castle," Violet replied before she chuckled. "Ironic, the so-called heir of Slytherin will finally give something back to the school, something productive for a change that doesn't involve murdering muggle-borns."

"But the prophecy-," Dumbledore spluttered.

"Yeah, the prophecy," Adam sneered. "All these years you've poked and prodded in my life and the lives of my family, all because of that stupid poem, and now it turns out it wasn't necessary. You could have taken the memory from Slughorn forcibly where he told Riddle about the Horcruxes, instead you waited on your fucking arse all these years. You thought you knew it all, didn't you, but you were too lazy to look properly for a different solution? What did you plan to do, make me stroll up to Voldemort so he could kill me?"

When Dumbledore didn't utter a word, Adam wasn't the only Potter to lose it but Violet sent out a bang with her wand before the party could start.

"We're wasting time, we need to get to where the wards are controlled and powered so we can drain the amulet," she said.

The big black wizard in red robes held up his hand. "Who are you?"

"Violet Cantrell, I'm a Curse-Breaker like Bill Weasley," Violet replied before she twisted the knife. "I helped Adam when Weasley and Granger abandoned him."

It looked like the Potters were going to scream and shout at the suddenly awkward couple, but another bang stopped them. "The wards, please," Violet said.

The entire Order of the Phoenix went to the wardroom in the castle where the wards were controlled and regulated by a central stone. Dumbledore tried to take the amulet off Violet, but she sidestepped him, knowing he was only doing it to redeem himself while he was still alive. She could tell he was dead already from the curse that was causing his body to decay, but she wanted him to die miserably, knowing that if he had woken up and done what was necessary then perhaps this might have happened sooner.

She placed the amulet on the stone and let McGonagall and Dumbledore begin the process. The amulet glowed red for a moment, then white.

Snape suddenly let out a terrible scream and then he collapsed.

Violet suddenly laughed while the professors and other Order members raced to him as the greasy man thrashed about, screaming in agony. "Oh yeah, I forgot to mention," she began conversationally. "I've worked out why Voldemort survived that night on Halloween. The Horcruxes had nothing to do with it, it was the Dark Marks burnt into the arms of the Death Eaters that kept him alive."

"What do you mean?" Lily Potter whispered.

"Horcruxes are pieces of the soul, torn apart from the main body. They don't make you immortal at all, the idiot who creates them will still die. But Voldemort must have seen and experienced problems when he'd split his soul so many times. So he burnt Dark Marks into the arms of his followers to tap into their magic. There's nothing anyone can do for them now, they're either going to die, or they'll become squibs. Personally, I hope they become squibs, it will make them wake up and see life doesn't revolve around them," Violet explained while she looked on, unaffected by Snape's agony, but she had the impression that despite the pain the Potions Professor was listening to every word. Good. Maybe now he'd properly learn his mistakes, though it was too late for him to do anything.

"In every magical country, there have been people who tried to use the soul to attain immortality. But while the theory is sound, in practice the effects are unpredictable. Sometimes a Horcrux can make you live an extra few years, or it might slice your lifespan in half, but even if you die the magic connecting the body to the Horcrux dies out too. The Horcruxes left by witches and wizards over the years are the remains of their makers, but they've all since died. The soul pieces are worthless, they're just echoes."

"I don't know what would have happened in the long term to him, but I think Voldemort must have realised something was wrong with his magic. Maybe he was growing weak since all of the soul fragments were drawing too much of his power away from him, but in any case he created the Dark Mark after perhaps reading an account of a similar Dark Lord who'd branded his followers with a tattoo that connected their magic to him, and as long as he kept marking other people he would be alive forever. The connection to his followers is what has kept him alive all this time. I don't think Voldemort really connected the Horcruxes to his waning abilities, but when he marked his followers it no longer mattered because he could simply steal their magic in minute amounts, which explains why he was such a dangerous opponent. That kept him stable."

Violet walked over to Snape and looked down at him dispassionately. The potions master was still writhing in pain, but the worst of it was over. "You made a big mistake letting that snake-faced freak brand you, you stupid greasy haired fuck," she whispered. "No wizard in their right mind would ever allow themselves be branded by another. So much for your so-called expertise in the Dark Arts, it hasn't helped you, has it? Well, you and the rest of the fuckers he's branded won't live long enough for it to matter."

Dumbledore had standing so still he had almost appeared to be a living, pale statue as he realised what this meant. It didn't last. Moody glared at him. "I kept telling you we should be killing the Death Eaters, Albus!" he hissed angrily. "But no, you kept saying we could redeem them. Do you get it now? If one of those bastards lived then they'd bring him back to life. You and your need to forgive and forget, as if anyone would forgive the likes of Walden McNair, or Bellatrix Lestrange. You were spitting on the graves of the people they'd murdered! Now we find out they were keeping the bastard alive, all because you couldn't do what was needed!"

"I-I didn't know-," Dumbledore whispered.

Violet didn't care if this was hurting him. "Maybe you should have checked your facts instead of thinking you knew it all," she told him. "From what I've learnt you have guessed he created Horcruxes but didn't bother to find out for sure. What's worse you had a Potions professor who knew about it, but you spent so many years sitting on your backside waiting for him to come to you. You're so out of it, its pathetic. Real people don't come out and admit they made a mistake where hundreds of innocent people died for no other reason than because their murderer was a deluded fool with grandiose dreams about something that is meaningless. You should have cornered Voldemort on all sides and hit him with multiple killing curses when you suspected he had created a Horcrux. That's what some magical countries do. In countries like China, who've had experience of mad Dark Lords running around with their souls in pieces, they punish anyone who cuts off a fraction of their soul with death. It's inescapable. Others use rituals like the one Adam and I used to put them all into the amulet."

"This is why you should teach the history of Horcruxes to your children, Dumbledore; yeah, I know they're abominations, the goblins hate the things. But if you keep up your current policies, then someone desperate to live forever will come along, find a reference, dig deeper, discover the process of splitting the soul, and then make themselves vulnerable."

Sighing in exhaustion, Violet went over to Adam Potter and hugged him tightly. "See you later, kid," she whispered into his ear so only he heard what was being said.

She felt him nod into her shoulder.

It was over.

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Back in the present day, Violet pushed through the memories so she could walk over to her husband. She smiled down at him as he slept comfortably in post-coital bliss. It wouldn't be long before she was finished with him. In the meantime, she would fuck him left, right and centre in order to lull him into a false sense of security.

She had already planned his death, it would be a drink-driving accident, manipulated into his mind of course. Violet wasn't like other black widows, she didn't spend time planning her moment to occur on their wedding night. No, she preferred taking her time and getting all the fucks she could get while making sure her muggle husbands wrote their wills and left a sizeable chunk of their fortunes to her. She wasn't that greedy.

When he woke up he looked at her with a smile. "Good morning," he whispered.

Violet smiled at him, and she smoothly got on top of him and ground herself on his cock.

He groaned as she got going. Finally, she let his erect cock penetrate her quivering pussy and she moaned in pleasure before she bounced up and down on his body, going faster and faster while he moaned. Finally, he came inside her and she slid back to her part of the bed while he panted with exertion. Gently, she trailed her dainty hand over his muscled body while she used her other hand to gently caress her tight tummy. Hmm, she thought to herself. Maybe I should stop with the contraception potions I'm taking and get myself pregnant, I could do with an heiress….

The End.