Violet had by now noticed the potion simmering at her station and recognized it as Polyjuice Potion--she'd leaned over and examined it carefully to make sure it was really hers, she didn't want to continue this work with some other student's possibly less well-made potion. Then she stepped back as Professor Varma began to lecture--another anti-Muggle speech, every class was full of them. Surely the potions professor didn't believe that, of all people! Or were they all so afraid of the Neo-Alliance that they felt they had to go along? Violet realized that they were all heavily outnumbered by the non-Hogwarts people by now, so she supposed that was the case. But just how far were the faculty and students prepared to go in please these intruders?

Listening again, Violet caught the remark about putting Muggle acting to shame. She's had a chance to see some Muggle theatre by now, and she was really interested to hear what Professor Varma thought the wizarding world had that put it to shame, because Violet had always thought that the Muggles really had an edge on them when it came to entertainment. Certainly she'd never seen or heard anything in the wizard world that could compare to Shakespeare, or even come close.

Hmmm....who would she be if she could be anyone? Someone not locked up in a dark, dank little room in a castle under seige, that was for sure. Once she might have said a famous witch or wizard or a renowned author, but today, she would just like to be someone who was free and confident and able to handle anything the world threw at them. And the person she knew who was all those things the most was...."Miss Jane Howard, my former governess," she replied. "Because she's always calm and confident and in control. And she knows how to do everything, practically, and has studied alchemy and potions and arithmancy and know all sorts of ancient, secret things." And she's free out there, and not locked up in here.