A/N: Hey guys! Thank you for the lovely response! It is such a big thing for me that you guys are reading my work from all over the world!
To answer your questions:
Cukika: I am from India but I don't live there!
Lizzy Lizard Snape: Yeah, I do travel a bit! My location in my profile usually changes a lot, so I turned it off! Hehe
Chapter 35 – Moving On
The morning dawned bright in the Snape household. Lily, as usual woke up at 6 and started breakfast, Severus grumbled about the unfairness of the world at exactly 6:55 and his mood brightened at 7 when Lily placed a cup of coffee in front of him. The smell of sausages wafted in the air and Harry waddled downstairs and took a seat in front of his father. A minute later the bathroom door sounded and Anora trudged down the stairs and slithered in the chair beside her brother.
At exactly 7:15, breakfast was laid down and the family started eating.
Conversation flowed and banter resided on the dining table.
"The Daily Prophet has printed a wonderful photo of you two." Severus said and slid the paper across the table between Anora and Harry.
"The Twins of Merlin finally seen." Harry scrunched up his nose at the headline.
"Twins of Merlin is so…weird." Anora said as she ate a bite of her sausage. "It could have been something cooler, like…Voldemort's Destroyers or something like that."
"Voldemort's Destroyers? Are you insane?" Harry countered her. "How about…Death Escapers? Or Deadly Twins?"
Anora laughed and put her hand up for a high five.
"I will make sure to tell the press that you have some worthy suggestions for the next copy." Lily said, faking seriousness.
"Very funny." Harry muttered.
Severus tapped the table twice with his index fingers and smirked as the show began.
"Really Dad!"
"Aw come on! I am fine."
Both the children started but Severus calmly held up his hand.
"Did you protest like this for the past month?" He asked.
"Yes." The children answered.
"Have I ever given in to them and let you get away without the potions?" He asked them again.
"No." Harry and Anora grumbled.
"What makes you think I will do that now?" He said with his infamous raised eyebrow.
"Dad- Look." Anora said and showed him the paper. "We are Twins of Merlin! We should be able to get away from the potions for at least today."
Severus just stared at her for her hopeless logic.
"Mu-" Harry looked at her but Lily stood up with the plates.
"Don't even think about it." She said and charmed the brush to wash the plates.
The children groaned before finally giving in and taking their potions.
"Thank you." Severus intoned and vanished the empty vials.
"John will be here in a while to check up on you both." Severus informed them. "If he gives you a green light, we will be taking a trip today."
Harry's eyes shined at that.
"Thank god! Anything to get out of here!" Anora said.
"Trip? Where?" Harry asked.
"Northern Ireland." Lily said and smiled at Anora. She and Severus had decided that it would be a good change for the kids.
"Warren Manor?" Anora asked softly.
Lily nodded and laughed at the smile that broke out on her daughter's face.
"Thank you!" She cried and leaped up to hug her.
"Thank god! I thought we would be stuck inside forever!" Harry said.
"Alright out with you, now." Severus said. "Let some sun fall on those pale limbs. Stay in the backyard only. And no running around!" He yelled after the kids who were already opening the door.
After half an hour, Lily called both of them inside.
John was sitting on the sofa with Severus and they were laughing at something.
"Why are you both out of breath?" Severus asked and narrowed his eyes.
Anora and Harry sheepishly smiled at him.
"We might have thrown a ball around." Harry said slowly.
"Harold Elliot!" Lily gasped and cuffed Anora on her head.
"Hey!" the girl protested.
John chuckled at them before standing up.
"Shall we?" He said and pointed gestured to the stairs.
"Make sure you give us a green light." Harry whispered as he passed him.
"We'll take any potions you want for 1 week if you pass us." Anora whispered too.
"I heard that and I have already warned John against your offers!" Severus said as they went upstairs and threw him identical cheeky grins.
"Brats, both of them." Severus said fondly.
"I will be back." John said with an amused smile and went after the kids.
/
"Harry!" Severus called loudly as he put on his shoes. "We are leaving you!"
John had left a while ago, saying that the children are fit to go.
"I am coming!" Harry bounded down the stairs. "Where are Mum and Anora?"
"Outside. Let's go." Severus stepped outside.
After the family was out of the house, Lily chanted a spell and the house locked down.
"Can muggles see it?" Anora asked as they walked towards the end of the wards.
"Yes. But they don't come over here much. They fear the forest, and the myths of werewolves doesn't help." Harry replied and kicked a stone out of his way.
"Do they know you?"
"Yeah, we go over in the town sometimes. I'll take you too." Harry said.
"Alright." Severus stopped at the end of a clearing. "Anora, keep a picture of the area in your mind, I will use legilimency and-"
"You know I can apparate, right?" Anora asked.
"You are not apparating till you are 17 and have an apparating license." Lily said firmly.
Anora slowly reached behind and took out a card from her back pocket, showing it to Lily.
"I will kill Albus." Severus fumed as he snatched it out of her hands. "And you, picture it. I will not have you doing side-apparition three times."
"But-"
"NO." Severus enunciated.
"Fine." Anora muttered and closed her eyes.
"Ready?" Severus asked her and she nodded before opening her eyes. She felt a presence enter her mind and gave Severus full access.
"Did you get it?" She asked when he retreated.
"Quite clearly. Are you sure this is the exact address?" Severus said and she grinned.
"Never doubt it." Anora said.
Severus planted the image in Lily's head too before they were ready to go.
"Okay, let's go." Lily said she took Harry's hand and apparated on the spot.
"You think they landed alright?" Anora asked as Severus took her hand.
"Let's find out." With a small pop, they disappeared too.
/
Anora opened her eyes to find Harry and Lily standing right in front of them. Waves lapped on their legs they stood. They surrounded by blue water and white sand and huge cliffs on one side.
"We are on a beach." Harry stated, as if to confirm.
"Yep." Anora breathed in deeply the smell of the salty water and the fresh sea wind. "Come on." She said and started walking at the opposite direction of the water.
Severus shared a look with Lily before following her. They walked a good 200 meters before palm trees enveloped them on the sides. A cool pleasant shade fell on them and hot summer heat evaporated a little.
"It's just over here." Anora said and took a right.
Behind a thick wall of palm trees stood a huge house. It was done in white and trees were planted all around it. A big garden with a driveway was in front of it. Huge black gates guarded the manor and Anora stood in front of them.
"There are wards till the beach. They don't allow strangers to apparate inside." Anora explained. She then took out her wand and stood in front of the gate.
"Sono a casa, di nuovo al mio sangue." She chanted and the gates opened wide with a loud creak.
"Italian?" Lily asked her.
"My mother was one fourth Italian." Anora said and gestured them inside. "Welcome, to Warren Manor." She smiled at them.
Harry gaped at the sight of the house.
"You are rich." He breathed as he took in every detail of the outside of the house. Anora laughed at his words.
"I am not." She said and walked towards the house.
Beautiful garden was surrounding their path. Anora stopped in her tracks when she saw a red ball lying in a corner of the garden. Lily went towards her and put a hand on her back.
"It's beautiful." She said as she guided the girl.
"Yes. Very." Severus said while examining a plant. "Is this Juliet Rose?"
Anora looked over at him and nodded.
"Oh, yes. Dad was crazy about potions too. Planted all sorts of ingredients in the garden and out in the backyard and even on the roof. Once he planted some weird kind of plant that ate all of Mum's daisies." Anora laughed.
"What happened then?" Harry asked her.
"Let's just say he slept on the sofa for the next whole week." Severus and Lily laughed at that.
"Who keeps the garden clean and trim?" Lily asked her.
"It's some spell Mum put." Anora said and searched for a key in one of the plant pots in front of the big oak doors. She pulled out a big key before inserting it in the keyhole. The locked popped open and she pushed the twin doors open.
The air was a bit musty due to the lack of ventilation. Anora threw the key on a table before raking her eyes over the huge entry hall. A winding staircase was constructed at the left side of hall.
"This is the parlor. The left door leads to the piano room and the door beside that is Mum's study. On the right side, you have the kitchen and a library. The small door leads to my dad's laboratory and his study." She looked at Severus. "You should check it out."
"You don't have house elves?" Harry asked and ran a hand through the back of the royal couch.
"We did. I freed them after the funeral." Anora said. "There are more rooms upstairs. Feel free to open any doors and check them out."
"Are you sure?" Severus asked her, a bit wary of the clouded look that had taken over her face.
"Yeah. Go on. I'll be around." She said and walked into her mother's study.
"I am exploring." Harry said and went up the stairs.
"I will be in the laboratory." Severus said and left.
Lily sighed before walking into the kitchen.
/
"Find anything interesting?" Anora asked Severus as she entered her father's study. Severus was staring at a photo on Peter's desk.
"He was an impressive man." Severus said and showed her the photo. Anora gave a sad smile before taking it from him.
"It was taken on our 10th birthday." She said as she stared at the picture. A tall man with hair very much similar to Anora's, stood laughing in the picture. A small boy was sitting on his right shoulder and a girl on his left, both sporting similar grins. "Mum said he was getting old, so he wanted to prove otherwise." Anora gave a short laugh. Severus took conjured a cardboard box from a tissue paper and kept it on the desk.
"Put the photo in this, along with other items you want. We can take them home." Severus said. Anora nodded at him and carefully placed the photo in the box.
"You father's research diaries are pretty interesting." Severus said and flipped through one of the many black books that were kept on the table.
"You can have them. He would be ecstatic to know that his diaries were in the hands of such a great potions master." Anora said and started to put the diaries in the box. "There are more in the second drawer."
"Thank you." Severus said. He was quite shocked at the amount of information in the books, and also at the fact that Anora was handling all this so well. He was glad that her talks with John helped her.
"He was a healer, wasn't he?" He asked.
"Yeah. John said he had worked with him on a few cases, but they weren't close." Anora shrugged and rummaged in her father's drawers.
"Didn't you have any family friends?"
"We did. The Morrisons were the closest, I mean are the closest. Then there were the Bernards, they went back to France 6 years ago. My dad had some close friends, but I didn't see any of them after the funeral and my mum wasn't much of a social animal." Anora said and took out some papers before depositing them in the box.
"No Godparents?" Severus asked.
Anora shook her head. "We had a godfather, he was a muggle. He grew up with dad. He was detected with blood cancer when we were 1. He died the next year."
"I am sorry." Severus said looked at her. She was still kneeling behind the desk, trying to scavenge something.
"You cannot miss what you never had." She shrugged.
"Well now you have 2 godfathers." Severus sad.
Anora looked at him and smiled.
"And I love them." She said. "Finally!" She exclaimed suddenly and took out a small deep royal blue box.
Severus curiously moved towards her and watched as she opened the box. A beautiful Phoenix feather quill rested in the box.
"Those are rare." He said.
"Very. My Dad got it from my grandfather, Gordon Warren. Dad used to tell us that the quill is a family heirloom and would be passed down to one of us." Anora said and ran her hand over the quill before handing it to Severus.
"Did you go into his Potions laboratory?" She asked him.
"No." Severus shook his head and dropped the box of Quill in the cardboard one.
"You should. There are some rare ingredients in there too. You can have them before they go bad." She said and exited the room, leaving behind a very happy Severus.
/
"I saw your room." Harry called from upstairs when he saw Anora passing by. Anora looked at him and grinned.
"I was cleaner than you even when I was 10." She laughed and quickly dodged a flying sponge ball.
"I didn't go in any other rooms." Harry said as Anora joined him upstairs.
"Oh." She said. "You want to see Aaron's room?"
"Sure. If that's alright with you that is…" Harry said as he followed her to a door on the right-hand side of a long corridor.
Anora slowly opened the room and her eyes teared at the sight.
FLASHBACK
"MUM! I don't know what to wear!" Aaron yelled as he huffed and sat on his bed which had small centaurs running around.
Grace Warren entered the room wearing a beautiful dress and frowned at her son.
"Aaron Patrick! What is this?" She asked and gestured towards the bed and the floor where half of the boy's wardrobe lay in a mess.
"I can't decide what to wear!" He whined. "I don't have any clothes!"
"Why don't you wear what you are wearing right now?" Anora smirked as she entered the room.
Aaron looked at himself and noticed that he was in his briefs and an undershirt.
"Get out!" He said and threw a yellow shirt at her which she swiftly dodged and went away laughing.
FLASHBACK END
Anora reached out and picked up a yellow shirt from the floor. The bed was covered in clothes of all colors.
"Aaron sure was a mess maker." Harry said as he took in the view.
"That he was." Anora whispered and sniffed the shirt. It was quite musty, but she could still smell the lingering fragrance of Aaron.
"Wow. This room is huge." Harry said. The ceiling was pretty high and a big world map was stuck to it.
"He was crazy about travelling." Anora looked up at the ceiling.
"Why are some countries in red?" Harry asked her.
"That's the countries we have visited."
"Germany, Netherlands, France, Italy…and more. You guys travelled a lot."
"Yep." Anora's attention was captured by a book that lay on Aaron's study table. "We used to fight for this book so much." She said and smiled at the cover.
"Riddle of the Moon." Harry read.
"Best bedtime story." Anora said and decided to take the book with her.
"You both looked so similar." Harry commented and picked up a photo from the desk.
"That's the concept of twins, Harry." Anora chuckled. "I'm going downstairs." She said and picked up the photo.
"I'll join you." Harry followed her.
"What's upstairs?"
"Guest bedrooms and an emergency potions storage. And above that is the roof." Anora said.
"I was half expecting a pool over here." Harry joked.
"We had a beach 5 minutes away, why the hell would we need a pool?" Anora gave him a 'Are you stupid' look.
"Point taken." Harry said and wandered towards the backyard.
/
"Hey." Anora interrupted Lily's reading as she slammed her box full of things on the breakfast bar.
"Hey. Wow, I thought you might have more things you would like to take with you." Lily said and put down the cook book she was reading to examine a toy from the box.
"Yeah, well." Anora shrugged and sat down in one of the chairs. "I guess some things are better kept here."
"Did you see all rooms?" Lily asked her. Anora bit her lip and nodded.
"I had an attack in my parents' room." She confessed in a small voice. Lily quickly got up and took Anora's hands in her which were still shaking a bit.
"Did you take the potion?" She asked her as she checked the girl's hands.
"I tried to control it like John said, but the pain was too much. I had to take the potion." Anora said sadly.
"Anora, John said that you should be able to try to control the pain after a few more months, not now! The pain is too fresh to be controlled right now!" Lily admonished her slowly.
"I used to handle much more pain, Mum! I have no idea what's wrong with me! I used to be so strong!" Anora jerked her hands out of Lily's and covered her face to hide the obvious tears.
"You were not strong, Anora. You are strong. You died and came back to life. You think weak people would have managed that?" Lily asked her and tried to pry the hands off the girl's face.
"Albus did the spell."
"Your body fought off the venom. If your body hadn't complied, Albus' spell would have been of no use. He knew you were strong enough to fight it off. As did we all." Lily said and finally managed to see the girl's red face.
"I don't want to hurt anymore." Anora whispered and a sob escaped her.
Lily quickly pulled her to her chest and let the girl cry.
"The worst part is already over." She whispered as she held the girl.
/
"Hey Dad." Harry called to his father as he explored the massive backyard of the house.
"Quite a house, huh." Harry commented when Severus was beside him.
"Healer Warren sure made good money." Severus nodded.
"They were happy, dad." Harry said softly as he saw an abandoned baby broom lying at a distance. The broom's hair were almost burned and it looked as if it would turn to sawdust if an insect even sat on it. "Aaron left the house that day thinking that he would clean his wardrobe after coming home, Anora left thinking that she would sleep peacefully in her own bed that night. Mrs. Warren and Mr. Warren left thinking that they would return home safely with their kids at night, tucking them into bed and reading them Riddle of the Moon. No one knew that…" Harry took a shaky breath.
"Life is like a balloon, Harry." Severus said and put his arm around his son. "It blows in the wind after the string is cut. It sometimes survives the bad weather, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes a bird may poke the balloon, popping it in the process. Anything can happen. My point is, Harry, that unexpected things happen all the time in our lives. It leaves us devastated, or happy even. There is no saying." Severus said and shook his head.
"I wonder what it would have been for her. Going to bed at night, thinking of all the things she would have done with her family of they were alive. It must be so painful, Dad, I can't even imagine." Harry said and leaned in his father's chest.
"No one can, son. Only Anora can."
"What do we do when unexpected things happen, dad?"
"We look at the bright side." Severus told him. "You got a sister."
"I always wanted one." Harry smiled.
"Come then, let's see what she and your mother are up to." Severus said and guided him inside. They found Anora and Lily laughing in the kitchen.
"What are you guys laughing about?" Harry asked them as they entered.
"Mum was just telling me a story about you." Anora smirked at him.
Harry narrowed his eyes at his mother.
"Which one?" He asked.
"Not telling!" Anora announced as she hopped off her chair.
"Oh come on! Was it the daisies one? I swear I was 2!"
Lily chuckled as the brother and sister bickered on their way out of the kitchen.
"Good day?" Severus asked her.
"Great day." Lily said.
"Ready to head home?"
"Yep!" Lily said and popped the 'p'. Severus shot her a look.
"You sound like one of the kids." He said as he hauled Anora's box in his arms.
"You can't possibly accuse me of spending too much time with our children." Lily said as they too walked out.
"I am not complaining about that."
"You better not, Mr. Snape."
"I don't dare to, Mrs. Snape."
The family exited the Manor and Anora locked the gate with another incantation. She stood staring at the house for a minute before turning around and looking Severus and Lily.
"I am ready." She said determinedly.
"Are you sure?" Lily asked her.
"Yes." Anora gave the house a look over her shoulder. "I have moved on." She nodded before taking her father's hand who was beaming proudly at her.
A/N: I thought a bit of insight in Anora's past life would be interesting. Hope you liked it!
What age group do you guys fall in? I am in high school!