Written for the Hogwarts Scavenger Hunt. This was hard to write, let me tell you!
Prompt: Anne Boleyn and why her portrait is in Hogwarts
Word Count: 628
Anne Boleyn cursed whoever had thought up this stupid rumor.
Of course not literally, she was not a witch, no matter what most people seemed to think these days, no matter what her family had hoped and wished for.
She was not a witch. Oh no, Anne was something way worse.
She was a squib.
And being a squib was just about the worst thing you could be in the magical world.
Your own relatives did not think that you deserved their company and simply threw you out of their homes—your home—to the muggles as soon as they could. That's how she ended up at the orphanage at such a young age.
The muggles were not any better in that aspect. The moment they found out that you weren't like them either, what you really were, they would try to hurt your family through you.
A squib had to learn to keep secrets from the very second they knew what they were. There was no other choice, no middle ground.
Over the years, Anne had become an exceptional liar. She had fooled everyone. Even the King—her husband.
And yet, she had slipped up in the worst way possible. After over twenty years of her life spent hiding her abilities—or rather the lack of them, because otherwise she would not be in this situation—she made a grave mistake.
Anne wondered who or what had possessed her to tell her daughter Elizabeth the story of Babbity Rabbity and the Cackling Stump instead of a normal tale, because she simply could not have made such a beginner's mistake. It was impossible.
Of course the one time she told her daughter something about her side of the family, her husband had to enter the room without prior warning.
Just her luck.
And now her marriage had been annulled and she was looking forward to her execution.
At least she would not have to stand her husband's—ex-husbands? Did such a thing even exist?—glares any longer.
Had he been magical, he would not have bothered with a proper execution, he would simply have cast a killing curse in her direction. He seemed to be trying to do that either way.
On her way to the execution Anne absently wondered what would happen to Elizabeth. Nothing had been arranged for her.—at least not to Anne's knowledge.
She turned to the guards that was leading her. "I am well aware that I am not in any position to give orders and that it is highly unlikely that he is even going to listen to me, but could you please tell the King to spare Elizabeth's life? It is not her fault that I am her mother after all."
To her surprise, the guard smirked her and took off his helmet.
She gasped, recognizing the dark her and the nose that had been broken before. Could it be that…? "William! Is that you?"
The man grinned at her and nodded. "Indeed it is, sister. Don't worry, I have arranged everything. I am not going to let either you or my niece die. Not tonight and not on any other day."
Anne frowned. "What do you mean with that?"
"My friends and I make up roughly a quarter of the for this," her brother explained. "A Confundus here, an illusion there and no one will know what really happened."
To her amazement, that plan actually worked out quite well. Nothing happened that prevented things from going exactly like they had been planned beforehand.
Of course this whole thing meant that she had to hide from everyone she had known—even her own daughter.
And what better place could there be than a magical castle none of them would ever be able to visit?
Please tell me what you think!
~Marvelgeek42