Hi everybody!

Don't worry: "Sparkle of Hope" our other story is still being continued but seeing at it is the holidays right now and having in this idea for the story in the back of my mind for ages, I thought I give it a try to post it here. Please review!

Luv

Prongs

Chapter 1 – Dumbledore's idea

Annie was sitting in the Gryffindor Common Room, enjoying a little bit of spare time, reading one of her favourite books. It was her sixth year and though she had sat the OWLS a year ago the study load hadn't lessened, as she had previously hoped.

Therefore she hardly had any time left to read or do other things she enjoyed. Even though she wasn't bad in classes she didn't enjoy studying at all.

She glanced over the top of her book and took in the happenings in the Common Room. The first and second years had already gone to bed, so there were only third till seventh years around.

She hardly knew any of these people, being this kind of person that was overlooked most of the time. She was small, just 150 centimeters high, had short brown hair and black eyes.

She had a normal built, nothing spectacular.

And being not spectacular at all and part of Gryffindor house at the same time, plainly meant that you had to be overlooked. Gryffindor, a house praised for its bravery and heroics meant that the people most popular were the people most noticed. Sadly enough she wasn't one of them.

It had never disturbed her…much. She had come to live with it. Being a half-blooded witch, she grew up with the wish to attend Hogwarts some day. She was the youngest of four children and her brothers and sister had all left the school already, all of them being Prefects and two of them Head-Girl and Head-Boy. Only she had never achieved anything of that sort.

She was used to it by now. The only thing that still bothered her from time to time was the lack of friends, she got along with people just fine, being the friendly and understanding person she was, but people never seemed to take the effort to take a second look at her, why should they?

Annie looked at four guys of her own year, who were snickering at something in the corner of the Common Room. She knew who that people were: They were Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, James Potter and Peter Pettigrew, the infamous Marauders.

Annie doubted though that even one of these boys knew her name, not that she had ever spoken to them. She liked them though, loving pranks herself and having played a few when she was at home, she could only wonder about their creativity when it came to inventing new tricks.

She noticed James Potter saying something quietly to Remus and Sirius, who laughed in reply.
Then, when he lifted his gaze their eyes met for a short moment. Annie blushed and looked back down on her book, she didn't want James to think that she was watching him, even though this was technically true.

"Hey Evans!" she heard him shout and groaned. Not again! "Will you go to Hogsmeade with me this week-end?"

"Over my dead body Potter." Lily Evans shouted back and joined the talk with her friends once more.

Lily was sharing a dormitory with her and was a very nice girl, she was Prefect and very popular. Even though they had never exactly been friends, they came along well enough and in the past, Annie had asked Lily for help if she needed any with her schoolwork. The only annoying thing about her, were her constant bickerings with James, well not so much the arguments the two of them had, but the constant discussions in the girls dormitory what a prat James Potter was.

Annie snapped her book shut, she wasn't in the mood for reading any more. She stood up, planning on calling it an early night, when a smallish looking boy approached her.

"Excuse me, are you Annie Jordan?"

"Yeah, I am," Annie replied surprised.

"I've got a note for you from Professor Dumbledore." The boy said hastily, obviously in a haste to explain why he had addressed her in the first place. He handed her a small roll of parchment and went to sit with his friends once more.

"Thanks" Annie mumbled and sat back down. What on earth did the headmaster want from her. It wasn't as if he had ever acknowledged her presence before.

Annie quickly unrolled the parchment and read:

Dear Miss Jordan,

I have a very urgent matter to discuss with you that can't wait any longer. It would be highly appreciated if you could come to my office tonight at 9 o'clock.

The password is Chocolate Frogs.

Yours sincerely

Professor Albus Dumbledore

Annie quickly checked her watch, it was five to nine. Bugger! She jumped up, leaving her book on the table, and raced out of the Portrait hole, not noticing that another scroll of parchment had just been delivered to a fellow sixth year.

While Annie jogged along the deserted corridors she couldn't help but wonder what the headmaster wanted. Her marks were standard, well except divination where she sucked great time, but that was hardly a reason to be called to the headmaster's office. Prefects were already chosen and though their sixth year had just started there was no way that there would be any change in the headmaster's decision about that.

So the only possible reason of summoning her on such a quick notice would be…her family. Michael her biggest brother, who was now 24, was her best and well only friend…she wouldn't be able to stand if anything happened to them.

Annie sped up, she had to know what had happened. Arriving in front of the headmaster's office, she quickly said "Chocolate Frogs" and stepped on the moving staircase. The only reason she knew exactly where to go was the fact that she had seen the marauders being dragged here by an infuriated Professor McGonagall.

Before the staircase had even stopped moving, Annie was already knocking at the headmaster's door and barely waited to hear "Enter" from inside before opening it and rushing in.

"Good evening Miss Jordan. I am pleased to see that you have followed my invitation that quickly, although I daresay that there was no need for you running here…"

Dumbledore was interrupted by the frantic girl in mid sentence.

"Professor, is there anything wrong with my family? Was it you-know…?"

"Call him Voldemort Miss Jordan. Always call the things by their true name, fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself."

Annie just nodded, it was mostly her parents' wishes that she didn't mention the evil wizard's name, which brought her back to the question at hand.

"Professor, has Voldemort done anything to my parents or my siblings, are they hurt?"

Voldemort gave her an apologetic glance.

"They are perfectly fine Miss Jordan, I am sorry, if I invoked the impression that this was the reason I needed to see you. " Dumbledore explained reassuringly.

"However I do have a reason for summoning you here and in some way it does have something to do with Voldemort – before I continue though I must ask you to keep the information I am going to give you highly confidential, you are not allowed to tell anyone."

Annie gave a small snort. "As if I had anyone to tell in the first place" she added grimly to herself.

It seemed that Dumbledore had second guesses what she had thought:

"If you agree to help me, I think it will be as much for your benefit as for others. Being alone isn't good for anyone, Annie."

Annie looked at him, startled. Dumbledore merely continued as if nothing had happened.

"Do you agree to help me and not to tell anyone? I'm sorry but I must ask you to promise before I continue.

Annie swallowed. It seemed that what Dumbledore was going to tell her was of great importance but could she agree to do something without even having the tiniest bit of information about it. In the end it all came down to the question if she trusted Dumbledore and the answer was an easy one to give.

"Yes sir, I promise."

"Then I will explain to you the exact reason why you are here. See, earlier this night I had a surprising visit from a wizard from the future."

Dumbledore said this all in a voice as if there wasn't anything as normal as having someone from the future for dinner every night. Annie opened her mouth to say something but was cut-off by the headmaster.

"Yes, I know Miss Jordan that time travelling is not only highly dangerous but that it is also strictly forbidden to meddle with the past. However I personally think that the "visitor" had very good reasons for coming here, so let's put this minor problems aside, shall we? Yes where was I, right, this visitor told me that the only person to ever vanquish Voldemort would be the child of two students, currently attending this school. The problem is that these two students don't really share the kind of relationship they need to have in order to have a son, who is destined to defeat the most evil wizard of this age."

Annie looked at him, slowly the pieces were beginning to fit in. "So you want me to play matchmaker?" Surely that couldn't be too hard.

Dumbledore seemed to be happy that she had caught on this quickly.

"That is indeed what I wanted to ask you to do."

"So who are the two future lovebirds?" Annie replied grinning. This task didn't seem too bad, after all it would give her time to get her thoughts of a black-haired someone.

"Lily Evans and James Potter"

The grin on her face vanished in an instant. Annie stared at Dumbledore horror-stricken. There was absolutely no bloody way she would help the two of them get together. She only needed to find some reasons now which she could tell her headmaster because she would under no circumstances tell him the true reasons for not doing what he asked, well…it wasn't as if there were any 'true reasons', at least that was what she was trying to tell herself.

"Professor, you got the wrong person here." She said hastily, willing him to understand. "I am neither friends with Lily nor James…"

"What will make you the perfect person for this job, because this way they won't suspect anything."

"Professor, I have hardly ever spoken to them. Besides I am not the best person to ask about personal relationships."

Dumbledore smiled at her in an understanding way.

"I am sure you will do just fine. Now Mr Potter will arrive here shortly on an invitation I have sent him and I will arrange for him to tutor you in DADA, three nights a week, this should give you more than enough time to talk to him, don't you think?"

Annie merely gaped at him. It seemed as if Dumbledore had already planned all of this before she had even set foot in his office…

"Professor…" There was a knock on the door and before Annie could say anything else, Dumbledore called:

"Enter!"

The door opened and James Potter entered the office with an uncertain look on his face, clearly not knowing what to expect. Annie thought she knew why…she had seen the marauders earlier, when they had set an enormous load of stinkbombs on the caretaker's cat. He didn't seem to have noticed her so far, as usual.

"Good evening Mr Potter." Dumbledore said pleasantly.

James seemed to take courage from the twinkling in the headmaster's eyes.

"Good evening Sir. May I ask why you wanted to see me?"

"Indeed you may." Dumbledore replied good naturedly. "This here is Miss Annie Johnson. I trust you two know each other being in the same year and house.

James threw her a questioning look.

"Yeah James, it's true. I am a Gryffindor Sixth year as well and I have seen you around occasionally."

"Must have missed you." James said friendly but not sounding to bothered.

"Well," Dumbledore continued as if there hadn't been any interruption. "I heard from your Defense Against The Dark Arts-Professor that Annie would need some private tutoring and I thought you'd be the best candidate for the job, after all you've got an Outstanding in your DADA-OWL if I am not very much mistaken."

Annie kept her mouth firmly shut, while her cheeks turned red. Doing Dumbledore this favour was one thing, being displayed as an idiot in DADA, where the only thing she was lacking was focus, because of the marauders sitting close by, was another. But she had agreed to do this, so there was no turning back now.

James had to have mistaken her blushing for being embarrassed because of her DADA marks.
"Hey don't worry Annie. I, myself can't do Potions even if my life depended on it."

Annie smiled fleetingly at him, he was pretty nice, so much was for sure. Maybe there was some feeling on his side. A big warm bubble was growing inside of her.

"But sir, couldn't you get Remus to teach her…" BANG! The bubble was gone. "No offence Annie, but I am rather busy…"

"None taken." Lie of the century! She had tried to imitate James' casual sound of voice but was afraid that this didn't work. Thank Merlin, James wasn't one of the most observant people.

"No Mr Potter, I am afraid, I must ask you to sacrifice, some of your precious sparetime."

Annie threw Dumbledore an irritated look. Had he just used the word "sacrifice"?

"If you find this time, maybe I can lift the Quidditch ban, for your next game against Slytherin, after all it will be the first match of the season."

Now he was actually bribing him! Annie found it hard to breath, she felt as if she had never been so much humiliated in her whole life.

James seemed to ponder what he had just heard.

"Alright Sir, I'll do it." He finally said in a voice that clearly stated that he wasn't sure how to feel about this whole affair."

"Excellent, I knew I could count on you my boy. What about you meet thrice a week in the Room of Requirements. I trust you know where that room is James"

"Thrice?" It was James now who seemed to be gasping for breath, but when he saw the look on the girl's face he caught himself. "Alright thrice the week it is."

"Thank you. Now I wish you a pleasant night and Miss Jordan I want a regular update on the progress you make."

Annie just nodded her head, she had understood.

"Well then, you are dismissed."

While James was still looking at Dumbledore, Annie had already run from the room, trying to find a place to hide and think.