"So you understand Annie that after all you have heard tonight we can make you forget. If you wish then you can go on as normal with your family ..."
The pale girl on the bed looked hopeful at his words but Albus Dumbledore was not finished. The young girl had to know the full impact of her decisions before she made a choice.
"You'll forget everything Annie. Everything you have learned and everyone you have met." He watched as her clear green eyes moved over the young man beside her. Fred Weasley's soft snores had been filling the room for a few hours but even sleeping he had not let go of the girls hand and as Albus watched the things he told her sink in he was acutely aware of how much comfort she took from Fred being close.
It was strange how much she trusted him, how he was such a comfort to her and they had only just met in the worst circumstances. Love was powerful, the most powerful, but did he actually believe in love at first sight? Soulmates?
"I can't just go home? I won't tell a soul about what happened. I promise!" Her eyes had turned pleading but Dumbledore shook his head sadly, she was persistent however and it came down to a battle of wills, piercing blue eyes against clear and powerful green. He wished it could be the way she wanted but it was obviously impossible.
"Annie, your family would be in danger if you knew. But you should know that you going home at all also puts them in danger. They have seen you and you got away, you are in their sights."
As he said it he noticed her eyes go back to Fred and she gave a sigh. Pushing a curl behind her ear, her hand found a bit of gravel and she looked down at herself, bloody, bruised and dusty.
"You have been told alot tonight. I suggest you take time to think about everything. The Wealseys are a wonderful family and Molly a simply marvellous cook so I should think you will be comfortable here." She glanced at Fred again before biting her lip and asking
"So does this mean that everything is real? Dragons? Werewolfs? Vampires? Fairy Godmothers?"
The old wizard gave a chuckle before starting for the door. "If I had to answer all your questions then we would be here for days but I suggest you take a look at some of Fred's old school books for answers, Fred and his brother are very careful with those books infact you may find some that look like they have never been used."
She had also gave him a lot to think about. Was love more powerful than even he had dreamed, could it connect two people so perfectly that no small talk was needed? Surely not and after all the way they met had been extraordinary so maybe that has something to do with it. Although maybe he was jumping to conclusions, seeing love everywhere to try and make the world look better in his own eyes and not as bleak as it really was, with young girls getting pulled into a fight that was not there own. Whatever was happening he had never seen it before.
With a small wink the old man was gone, leaving Annie to her thoughts. She watched the rising sun cast shadows on Fred's face, watched as his chest first rose then fell with his steady breathing. she tried to picture his eyes but however she imagined them seemed wrong, the wrong colour or the wrong sparkle. She tried to picture not meeting him, she would be dead, she tried to picture forgetting him which seemed impossible. Her life had been upheaved and know she didn't know what to believe but would she change it? How could she be so attached to Fred already, be so much under his spell? The first thing he said to her had been 'trust me' and she did trust him and that scared her.
She had no clue who he was and yet she felt like, as long as he was around then things would be okay. What about her family? What about jake? They would be worried and might even think she was dead, her last text to Jake told him that she was in a creepy bar. He would be out of his mind, people had often suggested something between them and Annie had always thought that maybe...
She had lost all sense of her life in just a day, she could not imagine her and Jake together, raising children behind the white picket fence. it just wouldn't be right when their was such a huge world that she didn't know about. Dumbledore said she could go back but she would forget everything and she would also put her family in danger.
After a much needed deep breath, Annie took a second for herself. Magic exists! She had seen it. Dumbledore had shown her and it was all real! They could do amazing things, cure cancer, stop war!
Annie reached out and touched Fred's arm, the cut was gone, she smiled as she remembered how that had sounded when he said it didn't matter, back when she didn't know. Her own injuries where also gone although she was still covered in blood and dust, not to mention her ripped clothes. She needed to change.
Someone had sat a set of light blue pyjamas on a chair in the corner, they looked like girls so she could only assume they had been left for her. She pulled them on, keeping an eye on Fred to make sure he stayed asleep when she changed she also noticed that there was no blood on her skin, just her clothes, someone must have used a spell to clean the blood away from her skin. She tried to not let that thought freak her out, there was a brush on the bedside table so she brushed her hair. The pyjamas smelled comfortingly familiar and it was a second before she realised they smelled like Fred, she threw him another glance but he was dead to the world, it was getting strange how much he made her feel better.
Annie was surprised by how much she wanted to make a good impression on the people she was staying with, Fred's family...
She wasn't stupid. She knew Fred risked his life saving her and that she didn't make the job an easy one, having their son turn up with an uncouncious girl that needed healing and a place to stay couldn't have been pleasant.
Deciding to let Fred sleep, even though she wished he wouldn't, it would look silly hiding behind him and anyway from the way she was screaming the night before they probably thought she was a weak little idiot. Stealing herself she left the room. Annie looked up and down the rickety staircase, she could hear the murmur of people talking downstairs but upstairs it was silent.
That means everyone is going to be there when you walk down, Annie told herself, it gets it out the way if you meet everyone at once.
Even so, Annie wished she could meet people slowly with Fred doing the introductions with little need for her to say or do anything. when she was younger she was crazily shy, not talking to anybody new or different, she would stand in the corner holding Mia, a cuddly cat toy who she took everywhere, she had ginger hair and a pink nose and big grey eyes and was one of the reasons Annie had always wanted a cat. Childishly wishing she could clutch Mia now she walked down the staircase slowly and started to make out what the voices where saying.
"... Ginny looked beautiful in the gold dress I picked!"
"Bloody hell! Ginny in a dress!"
"Ronald! What have I told you about your language."
"Yeah Won Won! No one cares what you have to say!"
"Ginny!"
"Mum can I have more sausages?"
"No George! I am just about to take them upstairs to-"
Annie decided that it was time to bite the bullet and show herself but the room sounded so busy that she just wanted to break down in tears, her stomach was clenched and she felt sick, all she wanted was to run back up to the room with Fred but this was Fred's family so they couldn't be that bad ...
She stepped into the room with her head held high, unfortunately there was a large pile of books with an odd looking clock balanced on top directly round the corner which Annie walked right into. As the clock fell she gave a little shriek and jumped backwards into a big wooden cabinet and was horrified as the room filled with the sounds of breaking glass from inside the cabinet. As she hurried away from the cabinet she almost stood on a little pink ball of fur which gave a shriek and launched itself through the air towards a red hair girl while Annie got the fright of her life and while trying to avoid stepping on the pink thing lost her footing and collapsed to the ground.
Annie looked up to see a number of heads turned towards her with expressions ranging from shock to complete laughter. She could feel herself going completely red as she tried to stutter out an apology, she noticed the clock on the floor and some kind of purple liquid seeping out from inside the cabinets. This is wrong. That was not meant to happen. Oh god what must they think of her?
"I am so sorry! Oh my god. I didn't mean to! I didn't know it was there and that cabinet was there either and I didn't know that fluff was alive in your world, I swear! Oh my god! I am so sorry."
Suddenly, just as she was about to burst into tears, a pair of hands grabbed her arms and pulled her to her feet. Annie felt as though she had never been as happy to see a pair of eyes, more specifically a pair of chocolate brown eyes, in her life. Fred looked around, ran a hand through his bed head hair and then gave Annie a small smile.
"Well everyone! This is Annie"