" Nice to meet you." The boy offered.
" You as well, Draco." Harry said back to him.
" Andromeda . . . I have an Aunt Andromeda. She was disowned by my family, though. Because she married a filthy muggle." What's wrong with marrying a muggle? Well, if they are anything like our Aunt and Uncle I guess they are bad. I nodded and continued to read my book.
" What book are you reading? Oh . . . that! That's so childish. I stopped reading those stories years do you still read that rubbish?" I glared daggers at him.
" It's not rubbish, thank you very much. I enjoy it. I don't care if you stopped reading it years ago, I just found it today. Now if you would care so much as to be a little less condescending that would be nice. You'll never make any friends treating people as you do, Draco." He glared at me and I glared right back standing my ground. He finally let up.
" I'm sorry. I just let my own opinions get the better of me. I hope you'll forgive me. I actually do really like that book. I'm . . . sorry." I looked at him closely to make sure he was being sincere. I decided to give him a chance.
" It's quite alright, Draco. Just know in the future that . . . well, telling someone something they like isn't good, isn't good. But, truce?" He looked at me and smiled, " Truce."
" Andromeda, Harold. Come along, dears. We best be meeting them soon." Poppy called from the front of the book shop.
" Alright, Poppy, we're coming. Good bye, Draco." Harry told him and ran off to Poppy.
" Bye, Draco. I hope we see you again soon." I smiled at Draco and then followed Harry's lead to Poppy. We grabbed either of Poppy's hands and started out of the store and back to the ice cream shop.
" Children, who was that boy you were talking to back in Flourish and Blotts?" She asked us curiously. Harry answered for us, " His father, I think had business and left him there for a bit. His name was Draco . . . Malfoy? I believe Malfoy was his last name, right Anne?" I nodded.
" Malfoy? Oh well, you two stay away from that lot. Not very good people, the whole lot of 'em." I looked up at her curiously, what's wrong with their family. Whatever . . .
Severus and Albus were waiting for us at the table we were sitting at earlier. They asked if we had fun and we said yes. Albus asked about the stuffed animals and Poppy just told him it was an early birthday present for us as our birthday is in 2 days. We started our journey out of Diagon Alley and back through the Leaky Cauldron. We walked down the crowded muggle street back to the alley we apparated in. I wasn't prepared to apparate again, but we had to. Severus looked at both Harry and I making sure we were ready and we both nodded. He took our hands and we were suddenly back in Albus' office.
I was proud of myself for keeping my food in my stomach this time. Harry wasn't so lucky. He immediately started retching and I started rubbing his shoulder as he released his treat from earlier onto the floor. He stopped retching and looked embarrassed.
" I'm sorry. I'll clean it up." He told the adults. Severus stepped in though, " No, Harry it's quite alright, I'll do it." Severus pulled out his wand and the vomit disappeared into the air.
"Thank you, sir." Severus smiled at him.
" Severus, I have to look further into our . . . business from earlier. Take these two back to your quarters. I already took the liberty of having an elf set up their room."
" Thank you, Albus. Inform me later of what you find. Let's be off, children. Poppy will you come with us?"
"Of course." Poppy trailed along behind us, still carrying our bags from Diagon Alley. We walked down in the larger corridors and back down to the dungeons. This castle is an absolute maze of corridors and classrooms. I finally realized I didn't even offer my assistance to Poppy who has been carrying our things all day. I offered her a hand and she politely refused, " No, dear. I'm quite alright, thank you for the offer, though." Finally we came to sportrait that I knew to be the entrance to Severus' quarters. He muttered something under his breath and it swung open. We entered the living room and we walked down a dark hall. There was a tall oak door to the right and Severus unlocked it. We walked in and it was so pretty. Everything was in the colors red and gold. The drapes on the two twin beds were burgundy with gold embroidery. The walls were made of stone and the floor too, but a red soft, lush carpet hugged the ground. I wonder if this is our room. Madam Pomfrey set all the bags down beside a beautifully carved oak chest with 3 drawers.
" Alright, children. Would you like to help me organize your dresser?" Poppy asked us. Harry and I both nodded ecstatically. We've never had a chest before!
" Well, if you are all entertained with this, I will go work on that Pepper-Up potion you asked for Poppy." She agreed and Severus left us to our own devices.
" Ok, Anne you get the top draw and Harry you get the bottom. The middle drawer will be for toys and books. These are your clothes in these three bags Anne. Harry these are your bags. You both get on with folding and organizing your drawers and I will organize your toy and book drawer."
" Um . . . ma'am, we don't have any books and we don't have any toys except for the stuffed animals you got us earlier today." Poppy smiled at me and stated, " I got you some other things from the store. Books and toys." I was shocked at this. " Thank you, ma'am." She smiled once more and continued to pull objects out of a bag I didn't notice before.
Before long we finished organizing and she pulled a book out of the chest. It was the Tales of Beedle the Bard.
" I caught you reading this in the store and decided to grab it." She told me as she handed the book to me.
" Thank you, thank you, thank you." I jumped up and hugged her immediately. I jumped back after a minute and she looked shocked. " I'm sorry."
" No, no, dear it's quite alright. How about the both of you stay in here and read for a bit? I need to go speak to Severus. You two can decide among yourselves who gets which bed." We nodded, showing our understanding.
" Ma'am? Are we going to look like this forever? Severus changed our appearance earlier and never changed us back." Harry whispered this quietly to Poppy. I too don't want to look like this any longer. I took the opportunity to look at the mirror on the wall. I normally had fiery red hair with green eyes and a small, frail frame. Right then I had dark brown hair, brown eyes, I looked a little taller, and a little fuller. Harry's appearance was quite the same. He didn't look entirely different, his hair was just a couple shades lighter than his normal jet black hair. His eyes were also brown instead of their bright green. He also looked taller and fuller.
Poppy finally responded, " Yes, of course, dears. I merely forgot to." She whipped out her wand and suddenly my hair burned it's usual bright red. Harry's long untameable, black locks also came back. I watched as our identical lightening scars reappeared on our foreheads. I'm glad that's back. When Harry and I were younger we always joked that it was a sign of being in the Potter pack. " Alright then, I'll be back in a little bit."
As soon as she left I looked to Harry, " Which bed?" He smiled, " I call left!" I laughed.
" Well, I call right!" Harry ran and sprawled across his bed. I did the same.
" It's like a cloud! I love it!" I laughed at him. It was extremely comfy. Going from sleeping on the cupboard floor to this was like a dream. I quickly hopped off my bed and retrieved my teddy bear and Harry's dragon from the chest. I tossed Harry his dragon and I scrambled back to my own bed to read my book. " I'm going to name my dragon, Chase. What are you going to name your bear?" I thought about this for a while, " I don't really know. I think . . . maybe Rose. Yeah, I like that." I went back to reading my book. Harry just sat happily on his bed making dragon noises. We probably sat in here playing and reading for a good hour, which I was fine with.
Severus suddenly walked into the room with Poppy trailing close behind him carrying a box full of vials.
" Come along, children. We best be going to dinner now. Poppy needs to go back to the Hospital Wing to do some work, so say good night to her." Harry hopped off his bed and went to hug Poppy, " Thank you for today. Can me and Anne come see you tomorrow?"
" Yes, of course you can come see me tomorrow. And by the way Harry, the proper way to state your question is, ' Can Anne and I come see you tomorrow?'." She smiled down at him. I hopped off my bed next and hugged her, " Thank you. Good night." She smiled at me and once more at Harry. She patted my cheek and then left out the bedroom door.
" Go along and put your toys and book away. Meet me out in the living room when you are ready to leave." Severus then swept out of the room. Harry and I scrambled back to our beds to retrieve our things and put them back in our very own chest. After we placed our items in the dresser Harry grabbed hold of my hand. We then walked speedily out of the room. As we walked I pulled the hair-tie from my hair and brushed my fingers through the braid to release it. My curly, fiery red hair fell down to my waist. I slid the hair-tie onto my wrist. When we walked into the living we saw Severus talking to something. It looked like a goblin, but with larger ears and less fancy clothes.
" - yes, Winky. Just inform Albus to floo me later tonight. Thank you. You may leave." The thing suddenly dissappeared.
" Sir, what was that?" Harry asked him. Severus looked up and just noticed we were there, " Oh, that was a House Elf. They do the cooking and cleaning here at Hogwarts."
" Oh . . ." I think I knew what Harry was thinking, but I wouldn't ask him till later.
" Well then, let's go to dinner." He stalked out of the room and we followed after him grabbing either of his hands. We strolled through the maze of corridors once more. We walked through the large corridor to get into the Great Hall. There were only two people sitting at the table in the center of the room. Pomona was there sitting beside the largest man I've ever seen and I've seen my uncle.
" 'Ello Perfesser Snape, sir. An' who might these two be?" The man asked Severus.
" Good day, Hagrid. This is Harry and Anne." He sat in the seat beside Pomona and I sat next to him with Harry on the other side of me.
" Bless me soul. These two 'ere aren't the Potters are they?" Severus sighed and nodded as confirmation obviously not wishing to go into detail. I believe Hagrid got the mesage even though he seemed to want to ask more questions. All of a sudden food appeared on our plates and Severus told us to eat up. More teachers started to file in. The ones we met this morning waved to us and we waved back. The ones that we didn't meet merely stared at us curiously.