"BUT IF YOU CLOSE YOUR EYES. DOES IT ALMOST FEEL LIKE. NOTHING CHANGED AT ALL."
"Ow! Shit!"
Anna rubbed her now bruised shin as she waved her wand and shut off the song blaring from her iPod as an alarm.
Ugg dammit, running is gonna be that much more of a pain this morning. Stupid wooden bed post.
Anna glared at the offending panel of chestnut wood while rubbing her eyes and running a hand through her hair.
Scratch that. My hornet's nest. Bedhead looking sexy and freeee.
As she leaned to stretch her back, she glanced around. Everyone else was sound asleep, thanks to her mother's variation of the Muffliato spell she had wound into her iPods back wiring with her father's help. It was one of her parents most successful designs and the one she used often for her workouts, as she had no need for ear buds and instead could play songs that only she or people that were standing remarkably close to her head could hear.
Her mom and Anna had actually worked together on perfecting the charm, with an 11 year old Anna singing her father's favorite drinking song as loud as possible and her mother trying to shrink the charm's radius to around just her head.
" ALL THE SWEETHEARTS THAT ERE I'VE HAD! ARE SORRY! FOR! MY GOING AWAAAAY!"
"Sweet troll balls! I can't get the circumference of this to the size of your little head. Do me a favor and swell up like a balloon please?" Adrian grumbled, constantly flicking crushed up herb powder from Grandpa Kai into the air so she could see the outline of the spell she was casting.
Anna was inverted on the floor in a perfect handstand, belting out the tune until her face turned the shade of her hair.
The outline of the spell was weaving in airy lines around the inverted now-retired gymnast. Much to Adrian's disappointment though, one side reached to the island in the middle of their kitchen where various cauldrons stewed more herbs for VisionCast powder, gold for Connor's wiring that he was to do later, and a lovely tomato meat sauce Anna had started for dinner with her mother's help.
With a disgruntled sigh, Adrian flicked her wrist and the lines disappeared from around Anna. With that, Anna tucked herself into a neat somersault and upon righting herself, struck her old landing pose, arms triumphant over her head.
"Thank you, Thank you. Good to know I've still got it in these old bones of mine."
"Darlin, you stopped classes two months ago after you accidentally charmed the trampoline to double bounce you into the foam pit from across the gym. I would hope after 5 years of it you would remember how to roll forward." Adrian chuckled and rubbed her temple, while shaking her head at her now pouting daughter.
"Details. The official statement from me is that I am making a shift to focus more on my quidditch career. So what's the sitch with the spell this time? Could you hear me at all?" Anna asked as she skidded across the kitchen floor in her golden snitch woolen socks to nearly crash into her mother.
Adrian reached out an arm with practiced skill and snatched her daughter into her lap before she could crack her pretty little head open on the floor, all while keeping her focus on her notebook in front of her.
"No I couldn't hear you, but anyone within a 4 foot radius of you would probably be deaf by now." Adrian teased, tugging gently on Anna's braid as she continued to write down numbers and symbols, crossing through others. Her brow furrowed and she closed her light green eyes with a frustrated sigh, dropping her pen and rubbing at her temple once more.
"I think you mean crying tears of joy. Don't be sad mamma, we'll get it before dad comes home I bet."
Adrian just shrugged her shoulders and hummed, lightly tapping her fingers over the bridge of her heavily freckled nose.
"Here's hoping. I dunno what we're going to do if we don't get the prototype design in to the office by Fri-"
"OOO! Look mom that symbol looks like a snowman! It even has a hat!" Anna exclaimed, reaching down to tap lightly on one of the central symbols that Adrian had drawn and crossed out in red ink.
"It does doesn't it? Huh, sure is an ugly snowman at that, it's all lopsided." Adrian said tiredly, but with amusement ever present in her voice.
" Aww be nice, he just needs a nose…..and maybe some coal buttons…." Anna mumbled as she began to make additions to the figure on the paper.
Adrian just shook her head and snorted. "You're too kind, thank you for fixing my egregious snowman. I wouldn't be able….to finish…anythingwithoutyou, HOLD ON WAIT!" Adrian exclaimed hurriedly, snatching the notebook up closer to her face and tracing a finger over the little snowman figure Anna had created.
Anna just looked at her mother, curious eyes wide from her outburst. "I-I-I didn't ruin it did I? I just wanted to help. I'm really sorry ma-"
Suddenly she was being lifted into the air and spun wildly about in circles.
"IT'S PERFECT! AHHH MY DAUGHTER IS BLOODY BRILLIANT!" Adrian yelled joyfully, and planted a huge kiss on Anna's cheek before setting her down and drawing rapidly into the notebook an entire new set of symbols, with slight alterations added to the circular loops that featured prominently in the middle of the design.
Anna sighed in relief and resumed her hand stand with a smile.
"Okay, are you ready?" Adrian asked, her eyes absolutely shining from excitement, as she twirled her wand in one hand and flung powder into the air about Anna with the other.
With a grin and a nod, Anna inhaled deeply and began her chorus again.
Adrian drew out symbols into the air, weaving them with a grace that Anna had always found so calming. Smoky lines wove through the air once more, but this time, they curved tightly in on one another and formed a structure very closely resembling an astronaut helmet around Anna's head.
Anna watched as Adrian began to jump around the kitchen, cheering and dancing before snatching the redhead up by the legs and helping her right herself. The helmet moved with her, remaining weightless on the young girl's shoulders.
"YOU DID IT! MOM YOU'RE SMARTER THAN MERLIN!"
Adrian flicked her wrist and dissipated the spell.
" Sorry? What was that? I couldn't hear you over the sound of you being a genius and helping me fix an entire charm sequence."
Anna had just giggled, blushed and hugged her mom. The older woman continued to laugh and cheer so loudly, that Officer Brenton came over 10 minutes later due to the Johnson's next door citing a noise complaint about "that mad lady laughing next door about SoundClouds."
Anna laughed softly and swiped at her eyes again. It was 4 am, too early in the morning for mourning.
She had recovered last night from her brief episode spectacularly. Kristoff had been ecstatic to find out she was a Hufflepuff and she ended up sitting amongst him, his short dark-haired friend Olaf with a rather large nose, and several of her other new housemates at long tables in the great hall.
Everything went smoothly after introductions were made and the first years were sorted. Anna sighed in relief that she didn't have to stand up there in front of everyone to put ole floppy on her head. After vigorously cheering for each new Hufflepuff, she tore into the feast, but not after everyone seated near her had been doubled over in laughter over her imitation of the headmaster's handshake. Kristoff was looking at her with a lopsided smile, and she returned it warmly, until the deserts arrived.
"Holy hell, you can really put down some chocolate can't you?"
"Ermff durrr, dish schtuff issh ahhmaafffin Krifffoff."
"How do you not weigh 300 kilos?"
"I work out, big guy. First chaser on Amsterdam's Quidditch team. Been playing since little league."
"Hold on a moment. RACHEL! GET OVER HERE! I THINK I FOUND ANOTHER CHASER RECRUIT!"
The feast began to wind down and Anna began to crane her head around to try and find Elsa at the Slytherin table. She spotted the girl's light blonde hair and watched as Elsa made conversation with a pretty brunette.
The blonde's eyes were attentive as the brunette and her friend across from her spoke animatedly to Elsa and whipped out their wands to show her an extremely well aimed Reducio spell that hit a nearby boys turkey leg as he was in the process of shoving it into his mouth. He glared over at the trio, dropping the now miniscule leg to pick up another from his laughing friend across from him.
The trio had chuckled and Elsa beamed at the pair of girls, nodding her head and saying something which earned her a brief hug from the brunette.
Surprised blue eyes had met Anna's soon after. The redhead grinned from ear to ear and waved goofily at the blonde. She saw Elsa cover up a laugh and return the wave with a laugh and shake of her head. The brunette turned to look at Anna briefly and waved before engaging Elsa's attention once more.
"So much for the stereotype that Gramps told me about Slytherin's. They seem pretty normal and non-threatening to me." Anna had remarked to Olaf, the boy wiping off pudding from his vest that his brother (One of them has to be adopted, REALLY, that kid is a beast.) Marshall had flung over from the Gryffindor table.
"Oh of course, not all of them are half bad. Very driven lot though, so they tend to come off as a bit stuck up when they talk about their lives. Tons for Purebloods too, but only a few of them are really pretentious beyond remedy."
"Right, like Kaldrskra" remarked a gorgeous girl seated across from Olaf that had introduced herself as Aurora with a snort and quirk of her eyebrow.
Anna frowned and opened her mouth, but Olaf stepped splendidly in before she could even think to defend her new friend.
"Oh come off it Aurora. Elsa's like the nicest person ever. You're just put out because she rejected you 4th year. She was so polite about it, but you being a gobby arse made a scene of it, called her a fucking bloodchaser and slapped the wand out of her hand" Olaf finished with a smirk.
Aurora rolled her eyes, and sneered as she got up and walked away.
Anna chuckled and clapped Olaf on the back gently. "Way to slay that one. I agree, Elsa is probably the biggest sweetheart I've met in years." Anna grinned.
Olaf stared at her for a second in wonder and then beamed a smile revealing his buck teeth.
"Wow, you're the first person here I've ever heard call Elsa a sweetheart. Not that she isn't! She is if you spend any amount of time with her, like beyond classes. But I mean, she doesn't really do that much unless people ask her or she's tutoring them. Mostly she's just really polite to everybody. Honestly, it's like decorum has gone downhill so far that being polite now makes you a bitch."
Olaf had been waving his hands animatedly and finally sucked in a deep breath. " But yes, Ice Queen she is not" he ended with a nod.
Anna wanted to discuss Elsa more but she shoved the train of thought aside as Kristoff's friend Rachel had arrived and they began to drill her about going out for the Quidditch team tryouts next week.
That was the reason Anna was shoving her blue Nike's on at 4 am and putting on one of her muggle ex-boyfriend's cut up football shirts to head up out of the still darkened semi-underground common room to go on a run.
Since Kristoff had been too stuffed and tired to give her a decent tour of the castle, he had showed her how to get from the great hall to the kitchens and into the dormitory and merely explained to her how to get out onto the castle grounds through one of passageways to the side of the kitchen.
Thank god I left early, Anna mused as she hurriedly snuck past the front door of the kitchen, teeming with house elves already preparing breakfast. It was 4:30 by the time she found the exit, since she had taken a right instead of left and ended up de-arming a suit of armor that had snatched it's arm back from her hand and pointed the opposite direction when she asked how to get back outside.
Finally, Anna clambered out into the early morning air. It felt amazingly chilly coming from the suppressive summer of North Carolina, so Anna took off with a grin after casting Lumos and tucking her wand into her sports bra to light her way.
She remained close to the side of the castle wall she was on, and kept it in sight as the sky just began to light up around 5:15 and she sprinted back to the door she had left out of.
Damn, still got it, made it back before 6. Aww kill em.
Anna paced back into the common room, and began to tear her sweaty tank top off as she made her way to the stairs of her dorm.
"Merlin's Beard, what the hell have you been doing?!"
Anna turned around and made eye contact with a girl who was seated in one of the plush chairs, tea on the table forgotten as she shot Anna a dumbfounded stare.
"Oh! Hey! Didn't even see ya there, I'm Anna McKay, by the way. Sorry I was just on a run, kinda sweaty, need to shower."
The girl furrowed her eyebrows and made a face similar to one Anna had watched her father make when he ate a toejam flavored jelly bean.
"A…jog? Why… what the bloody hell for?"
"Gotta stay in shape, Quidditch."
The girl sat back in the chair but continued to look utterly gobsmacked.
" I have never seen anyone but the Muggles back home go on a jog. Like Ever."
Anna rolled her eyes and sighed. "Come on, I'm sure some students here workout. You'd all be the size of whales if you just ate the great hall food all the time and didn't do anything."
The girl furrowed her brow for a second and looked up thoughtfully, before shaking her head,
"No I'm pretty sure no one but the Quidditch teams do much exercise. And they don't even do that much outside of practices. Must be an American witch thing, running around like a muggle sporty at the crack of dawn."
"Unbelievable." Anna mumbled as she tossed her shirt over her shoulder and continued on her way to the dorm and up to the showers.
Getting called a muggle once again by the wizarding community. I can't wait til all these guys realize that the liposuction spell isn't gonna be ready til the time they're already middle aged.
Anna grabbed her towel and soap from her rucksack and made her way to the showers in the back hall of the dormitory in nothing but her sports bra and panties. As she hopped in the shower, she missed two or three whispered "Gulping. Gargoyles." "Christ, she's got a tat" and one "God Bless America" from the girls who had been getting ready in the dorm room.
Okay McKay. You got this. You're gonna rock today. It's gonna be awesome. Just charm the bloomers of em. Ha bloomers. British panties. Shit, not Elsa in panties. NO! BAD! SHE IS FRIEND! Cool it. Probably will be so busy today you won't even cross paths.
Boy was she wrong.
Author's Note:
Well, better late then never to introduce myself down here. Just wanted to let you guys know that I am so very much NOT A WRITER IF YOU COULDN'T TELL. I just really wanted a Harry Potter AU of these two, so I decided to do it. So forgive any huge inconsistencies in the wizarding universe, it's been a bit since I read the books and I can't remember it all perfectly. Anywho, thanks for following and hope y'all enjoy.