"We're all capable of terrible things." - How to Get Away with Murder

Chapter Thirteen - The Greatest Gift (Part One)

May had come and gone. Ankaa sat at her desk, glowering at the clear, beautiful sky outside. Mother Nature was teasing the entire student populous. Such a beautiful day after days of rainy weather, and none of them could go outside to enjoy it because of their exams. With a resigned sigh, Ankaa turned her attention back to the almost blank piece of parchment that was sitting in front of her.

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Weasley,

It was all she had written. How was she supposed to thank them? Was she supposed to include a gift with her letter? Pursing her lips, Ankaa glanced over at the closed trunk that sat under her bed. In it, right at the top, was an emerald green and grey knit sweater gifted to her by the Weasleys for her birthday. It had her initial on it, a bright 'A' stitched in white.

"There she is!" Ankaa had turned her head slightly when the twins had entered the empty classroom she was in. Rolling her eyes with a small smile, Ankaa had turned back to her Divination textbook.

"What can I do for you fine, young gentlemen today?" Ankaa had smirked at them as they had a seat at the table in front of her.

"Fine?"

"Gentlemen?"

The twins turned to each other. Fred, who sat directly in front of her, elbowed his twin lightly, "She finally likes us, Georgie."

"About time, I was wondering when our charm would rub off on her."

"Once again," Ankaa raised a brow, "Is there anything specific you'd like or is wasting people's time a natural tendency for you?"

"Ooh, witty." Fred snorted. He reached into his bag and pulled out an envelope. "You know, we had planned to give you this for your birthday-"

"But if you're going to be sassy-"

"That won't work on me Weasleys," Ankaa levelled her glare onto the two of them. "Besides, you two already gave me a birthday present."

"We did?" George's eyes widened in surprise.

Ankaa nodded, "Yeah, the Muggle Chocolate?"

George paused. Glancing at his twin, who shrugged, he smiled. "For a moment, I thought you would say something cheesy."

"Like the greatest gift we gave you-" Fred began.

"Was your unconditional friendship?" Ankaa supplied, her voice monotone and expression neutral.

"Exactly!" The twins beamed.

"Sadly, no." Ankaa smiled, "The Chocolate was much better than unconditional friendship, I must say."

"Rude," Fred muttered. "But anyway, here you go." He threw the envelope at her. Ankaa caught it effortlessly and turned it around to look at it gingerly.

"Go on then, open it!" George bounced in his chair.

"All right there, carrot-top," Ankaa laughed, "Calm down."

"Wow." Both Fred and George spoke, looking at each other. Ankaa paused her fumbling with the envelope to see the two giving each other surprised looks.

"She laughed," Fred leaned over slightly and whispered to George, keeping his eyes trained on the Slytherin girl.

"I feel so powerful," George whispered back, "Like I've unlocked a new achievement."

Ankaa cleared her throat uncomfortably. She hadn't meant to laugh. It just slipped out.

"It's good," Fred said after a moment of silence, "You've got a nice laugh. It's cute."

Raising a brow, Ankaa nodded mockingly, "Anything to please you, Your Highnesses." She pulled the letter out of the envelope. It was a small card, just a hastily scribbled 'Happy Birthday!' and signed by the twins. Inside, they had included a colourful coupon.

"What's this rubbish?" Ankaa glanced at them, "One 'get out of prank free card'?"

The twins nodded proudly, "It's quite useful."

"Trust me," Fred said, taking it from her hands and waving it around, "One day, if you'd like us to spare you from a prank-"

"All you have to do is present it to us, and we shall let it slide."

Ankaa took the coupon back from Fred. "Ok? In theory, it's a wonderful idea, honestly. Ten points to Gryffindor-"

"She can give points?" Fred asked his twin, who shrugged.

"-But, how will this work? You'll have to tell me about every prank you're planning to pull on me beforehand for me to decide whether I want in or not. Doesn't that kind of seem... counterintuitive?"

The twins cast each other a sideways glance. "We didn't really think this through."

"No kidding," Ankaa shot them an amused look.

"Its the thought that counts!" Fred exclaimed.

"Not really." Ankaa shook her head in mock disappointment, "I really had expected more from you two."

"You didn't give us anything for our birthday." George pointed out.

"Correction: I didn't give you anything tangible," Ankaa countered, "I continue to give you my unconditional love and support."

"Great use that is," Fred rolled his eyes. George elbowed him slightly.

"Fine, you gold-digging goblin," Ankaa snapped, "I'll get you something next year."

"Promise?" The twins asked.

"We'll see." Ankaa muttered, "Now get out, I have work to do."

"Wait wait," George reached into his bag and pulled out a wrapped package and set it on the desk before her. "Its from Mum."

"Your mother?" Ankaa raised a skeptical brow, "Is it a howler?"

Fred and George snorted. "Why would she send you one?"

"For being a bad influence on you?"

"You? A bad influence? Never!" The twins gave her a wide smile.

Giving them an amused look, Ankaa reached for the package. Tearing into it slowly, her fingers brushed against the soft, knitted item. Carefully, she pulled it out of the paper wrapping and set it on the desk in front of her. It was a sweater. Knit by Mrs. Weasley, she knew it. Her fingers ghosted over the pristine white 'A' stitched into the centre, and then to the shoulders of the sweater.

"She wasn't sure what size you would be." George laughed, "We told her you were a short and puny one, I guess she didn't listen."

"I'm fun-sized." Ankaa retorted quietly. She held the sweater up in front of her. She could already tell it was a size too large for her, but she supposed it would be rather comfortable. "Thank you."

"Wasn't me who did the knittin', love." Fred rolled his eyes, reaching his arms over his head to stretch.

"Of course not, you moron." Ankaa retorted hotly, "You're not nearly coordinated enough for that."

"You're telling me about coordination?" Fred laughed mockingly, "Tell me, who was it that won the Quidditch Cup? What? I can't hear you-that's right! Me!"

"Well, me too mate, but ok." George winked at Ankaa.

"You're never going to let this go, are you?" Ankaa rolled her eyes.

"Awh, poor little Ankaa," Fred mocked as he jumped off the table, "You'll get your arse handed to you next year as well, love, don't worry."

She turned away from him in irritation and smiled at George. "Tell your mum I said thank you, she really didn't have to do this."

George shrugged, placing his hands in his pockets, "She wanted to. Some spiel about her knowing your parents when they were at Hogwarts. And also, she didn't make you anything for Christmas and well, she loves everyone so."

"Still, I really appreciate it."

"I'll let her know then." George nodded. "Oh and, don't mind Fred. He's just... well, he's just being Fred."

Ankaa laughed, "Don't worry, I know."

"You coming?" Fred stuck his head into the room, "I wanna meet Angelina before we head for the OWLs. She's got some amazing notes."

George nodded. Turning to Ankaa, he ruffled her hair playfully, "See ya later, short-stuff!"

With a smile, she pushed his hand away and tried in vain to tame her curls. Just as she had gotten them somewhat sorted, another hand reached over. Fred had come up behind her and put her in a light chokehold with one arm, and his other hand was in her hair, furiously ruffling her hair.

"Are you mad because you didn't Slytherwin?" He whispered to her before swaggering away. Both twins exited the room with rambunctious laughter. Ankaa did not turn around to throw anything at them. Instead, she sat still. She didn't even bother to fix her hair.

Clutching the sweater, she smiled widely.

It was nice. Nice to finally have some friends.

How could she thank Mr. and Mrs. Weasley for that? What was she supposed to say to them?

Hi, yes, I'd like to thank you for raising a wonderful, albeit troublesome, set of twins. Please procreate some more?

Oh no. That was just... no.

With a groan, Ankaa slammed her head onto the table. This was hopeless. Maybe she needed a break? She could come back and write it later. Nodding to herself, she put away her things and picked up her bag, ready to head for her Divination Exam.

"Come in, come in." Professor Trelawney wasted no time in ushering Ankaa into her dingy little classroom for her Divination exam. The rest of the class was lined outside, but Ankaa had decided to get this exam over as quickly as possible. How hard could crystal gazing be, honestly? Ankaa had spent the entire year making her assignments up anyway. Besides, Trelawney liked Ankaa, she could probably sense that the girl was a Seer.

"Now," Trewlawney spoke as Ankaa took the seat opposite her. "If you could kindly gaze into the Orb and tell me what you see... take your time."

With a smile, Ankaa glanced at the crystal ball, ready to spew out a nonsense story. Blinking in confusion, she paused. She could see something. There was some colour. Flashes of red, black and blue. Before she could comprehend what was happening, she was launched into another vision.

They were in a dingy looking room. The floorboards were covered in a thick layer of dust, and the curtains on the windows were falling apart. There was a man who stood in the middle of the room. His clothing was tattered, his hair matted with dust and grime. Lupin was standing next to him, his wand raised. The curly haired man turned around with a scowl on his face. It was Sirius Black.

"If you're going to tell them the story, get a move on, Remus," snarled Black. "I've waited twelve years, I'm not going to wait much longer."

"Good, good, what else do you see?" Trelawney was on the edge of her seat, nodding quickly. Ankaa did not remember speaking about the vision at all, but whatever she was doing pleased the Professor greatly, so she wasn't exactly complaining. Looking away from the Professor, she turned her gaze to the Crystal Ball again, concentrating as hard as she could. And once again, the smoke cleared and a picture formed.

Ceph was standing in front of her protectively. His head turned to Black before he pushed Ankaa behind him slightly. Ankaa gripped her wand tightly, pointing at Ronald, who seemed quite offended.

"She's gonna kill me!" Weasley whimpered.

"It's the rat!" Ceph pointed his wand at Ronald. "It's your stupid rat. It's Pettigrew!"

"Wonderful!" Trelawney cheered, "My dear, I must say you have gotten quite good at this. I never doubted for a second that you would... your mother did have this talent as well. If only your classmates could do this... that poor Miss. Granger."

Ankaa coughed as if she was out of breath. Her heart was pumping wildly. Her fingers had lost warmth, so she tried to warm them up again by forming them into fists. Trelawney continued spewing nonsense, none of which was of interest to the girl. Even if it was, at that point she was far too gone to even bother tuning in. But then, Trelawney's boney hand clasped onto her shoulder, and she was startled out of her zone.

"It will happen tonight," She spoke quickly as if she was being forced to let out the sentences.

"What will happen tonight, Professor?" Ankaa gripped the Professor's wrist in an effort to move her hand away from her shoulder. When it proved to be futile, she simply listened to the Old Seer with narrowed eyes.

"The Dark Lord lies alone and friendless, abandoned by his followers. His servant has been chained these twelve years. Tonight, before midnight, the servant will break free and set out to join his master. The Dark Lord will rise again with his servant's aid, greater and more terrible than ever before. Tonight... before midnight... the servant will set out... to rejoin... his master..."

Trelawney's head then fell forward, as if she had been snapped out of a trance. Ankaa swallowed uncomfortably and roughly moved the Professor's hand off of her shoulder. The Professor made some grunting sort of noise. Then, as suddenly as before, her head snapped up again.

"I'm so sorry, my dear, I must have drifted off." Trelawney smiled at her, her giant bug-like eyes blinking behind her hideous glasses.

Ankaa continued staring.

"Is there something wrong?"

Taking a deep breath, Ankaa shook her head with a smile. "Not at all. If that's all, Professor, could I be on my way? I've got some more exams to study for."

"Oh!" Trelawney nodded and stood quickly, causing the table to rattle. As she steadied it, she gave Ankaa another smile, "Of course, of course! I know you will do wonderfully."

"Thank you, Professor," Ankaa mumbled as she quickly grabbed her bag and went down the ladder. She turned away from the ladder, ignoring her classmates who were asking her for help. Hitching her bag around her shoulder, she ran as fast as she could down the spiral staircase and to the Slytherin common room, where her brother would no doubt be.

"Whoa whoa, what's the rush?" Ceph smiled as Ankaa took him by the wrist and dragged him away from his friends. When she refused to answer, Ceph raised a worried brow, "Is everything alright?"

Turning around, she surveyed her surroundings once before roughly pushing him into one of the abandoned classrooms. "I just had my Divination exam."

"Oh," Ceph smiled, "How was it?"

Ankaa pursed her lips. With a heavy sigh, she settled herself into one of the chairs closest to her. "Ceph, I had a vision." She mumbled, running her hand through her hair, "Sirius Black will return tonight. I don't know where, but everything's going to change tonight."

There was a moment of silence. After a moment, Ceph leaned before her. Smiling gently, he caught her wrist so she would stop running her hands through her hair and pull pieces out. She seemed to do it a lot when she was stressed.

"Calm down," He commanded softly. "Start from the beginning. What happened?"

And so she told him. She told him all about her visions, about how Black would be there, and how Lupin was involved. She told him of how all these years the man who had actually lead to the murder of the Potters was sitting in his Animagus form with the Weasley's.

"And what's worse is that Trelawney seemed to have a vision or a prophecy, I'm not exactly sure what it was," Ankaa confessed. "She said the Dark Lord would return Ceph, she said that he would come back more powerful and terrifying than ever before. What do we do?"

Ceph bit his lip. "Have you told anyone else about this?"

"No."

"Go to Dumbledore, I'll head to Lupin's," Ceph commanded. "Meet me in front of the Whomping Willow in ten minutes, okay?"

"The Whomping Willow?"

Ceph placed her bag in her hands and nodded. "I think the room you described was the Shrieking Shack. There's a passage from the Whomping Willow to the Shack. Be careful, alright? Don't go near it without me."

Ankaa nodded slowly.

Ceph stared at her intensely for a few moments before giving her a smile. He took her face in his hands and kissed her forehead. "You've done great Ankaa, we can do this. We'll set this right, don't worry."

Ankaa rolled her eyes, appearing irritated, "You're wasting time."

Ceph winked at her before he dashed out of the room. After he left, Ankaa looked to the floor. She didn't want Dumbledore to know of her visions. She knew he would insist that she take those damn classes with that Vablatsky woman. Ankaa was also sure Dumbledore would just relish an opportunity to one-up her. With an irritated groan, she ran from the classroom. She would rather deal with Dumbledore than know she was the reason an innocent man was sent to the foulest prison in the world.

"Professor!"

She ran into his office without knocking. Dumbledore looked up from his work calmly, raising a brow at her presence. Huffing slightly, she came to a stop before his desk.

"You need to call the Ministry," Ankaa demanded, "Black is innocent!"

Dumbledore stood, walking from his table and putting a hand on her shoulder. He led her away from his table, and asked, "And how do you know this, Miss. Rhyther?"

"I had a vision."

Dumbledore spoke solemnly, "I'm afraid the word of one thirteen-year-old is not very convincing, especially not with your lineage, Miss Rhyther."

And all of a sudden, Ankaa felt so incredibly stupid. She had rushed into this like a ruddy Gryffindor, without a flawless plan of attack. But as she watched the Headmaster, she came to the realization that she was right about him all along. He might have been the greatest wizard the world had seen, but Albus Dumbledore was a manipulative bastard. One who would do anything, absolutely anything in his power to ensure that he would be safe. He was a coward. One who was afraid of the dark rising once again.

"You knew." Ankaa whispered, "You knew all this time that Sirius Black was innocent, but you didn't do anything? You knew that Peter Pettigrew was alive because you knew he was the Potters' secret keeper all along. And you knew when Ron brought his filthy rat to Hogwarts that it was actually Pettigrew."

Dumbledore's expression betrayed nothing. "Miss Rhyther-"

"No," Ankaa sneered, "I came to you because my brother had some faith in you. I came to you because I thought, for once, I should throw away this ill-founded notion that you were a crazy old man, and that you could save my-" Her father? When had Black become her father? Shaking her head, she continued, "You didn't tell Lupin either, did you? You let the man believe that his best friends had all been murdered by Black. For twelve years, Lupin has lived in contempt because you were too busy playing your stupid games."

"Miss Rhyther, everything I did was for the greater good," Dumbledore spoke softly, but there was a certain hardness in his eyes that told her she had crossed a line.

He's your headmaster, a voice in her head warned her. She wanted to continue. She wanted to verbally slaughter the man. Instead, her self-preservation kicked into high gear, and she started working on damage control.

"You're right, Professor," She mumbled, moving from foot to foot. "I'm sorry. I think I'm just a bit overwhelmed with these visions."

Dumbledore nodded with a small smile. His eyes were twinkling again, but Ankaa knew she wasn't in the clear yet. Dumbledore was no fool, he would not fall for her tricks that easily. And so, she sweetened the deal.

"I think you were right," Isn't that what everyone liked to hear? "I think I need those lessons from Madame Vablatsky. Perhaps we could start them after the summer holidays, next year?"

Dumbledore raised a brow slightly. "Of course, Miss Rhyther," He smiled and nodded, "I shall contact her over the summer and work out a schedule. I'm glad you are finally putting your talent to such great use."

"Me too, Professor." Ankaa smiled weakly, "I-I also hope you aren't offended by what I said earlier. I truly apologize sir, I think I was just too stressed."

Dumbledore waved his hand as if to dismiss her worries. Reaching for his desk, he offered her a bowl of candy. "Chocolate?" He added, "It's the Muggle kind. A friend of mine was kind enough to send it to me, especially after I stopped eating Chocolate Frogs. In my old age, they're becoming rather hard to keep up with."

With a smile, Ankaa took one. "Snickers?"

"Where have you been!" Ceph growled the moment she came forward. "I said ten minutes!"

"Dumbledore." Ankaa sighed, "I kind of went on a verbal rampage and I had to fix things with him. Long story short, I will now be training with that Vablatsky woman to become a Seer."

"That's..." Ceph trailed off, "Great?"

Ankaa rolled her eyes, "Of course, if I actually do the training. I'm going to pretend to pay attention. I have no use for this. But we can talk about this later, what's the plan now?"

Ceph pointed his wand at the tree. "Immobulus," He whispered. Immediately, the tree stopped moving. Taking Ankaa's hand, he pulled her towards the base of the tree and gestured for her to go first. Gingerly, she glanced around the tree. It was too dark to see inside. She heard a slight sigh before she was pushed down the hole.

With a grunt, she sat up and moved away from the opening. With a scowl, she whacked Ceph on the head the moment he came through.

"Don't ever do that again!"

Ceph rolled his eyes in amusement. There was an ominous creaking that echoed through the tunnel. With his wand at the ready, Ceph ploughed ahead. Ankaa too had pulled out her wand.

"Why do you reckon they made this tunnel?" Ceph whispered after a while.

"Lupin," Ankaa answered immediately. "He's a werewolf. I'll bet anything he used this to get as far away from the other students as possible. What did you tell Lupin?"

"Nothing," She saw Ceph's shoulders move in a shrug, "He was gone when I got there. I knocked on his door a few times, debated waiting but I decided we had a better shot ourselves of getting there."

"This is mental," Ankaa sighed. "I can't believe I'm doing this."

"Well believe it," Ceph mumbled distractedly. As soon as the siblings neared the stairs of the Shack, Ceph held his hand out to steady Ankaa. He turned around to place his finger to his lips, and Ankaa nodded irritatedly. She knew she had to be quiet. What kind of a stupid sign was that?

"Just go!" She commanded hotly in a whisper. She ignored his glare as he moved up the stairs quietly. They could hear people talking in the other room.

"If you're going to tell them the story, get a move on, Remus!" Snarled Black. "I've waited twelve years, I'm not going to wait much longer."

"HE'S NOT PETER! HE'S SCABBERS!" Ronald was yelling. Ankaa took Ceph's hand and pulled him into one of the rooms next to the landing. Placing a hand over his mouth, she pointed to the floor where they had been standing. There where three sets of footprints. Someone else was here with them. She looked around her, trying to see if someone was under the disillusionment charm. She didn't spot anything.

Conversation slowed in the other room. The bedroom door had opened on its own. She almost definitely knew who was in the room now. This was their chance.

Holding her wand at the ready, she moved away from the room and stepped into the landing. Lupin's eyes widened when he saw the siblings standing there, holding their wands in front of them.

"Get back," Ceph commanded, taking a step into the room. His wand was trained on Lupin. Ankaa stepped in after him, ignoring the surprised looks she got from the Golden Trio.

"What are you doing?" Potter was outraged. Ankaa did not turn to him though. Both Ceph and Ankaa were focused solely on one figure. And that one figure was focused solely on them.

"You know, don't you?" Ankaa asked softly, "You know who we are."

Black glanced between the two, and something flickered across his eyes.

"Yes," He spoke just as softly. "You're all grown up."

"So have you," Ceph muttered distastefully, glancing down at Black's tattered robes. Clenching his wand tighter, he trained it on the man before him. "The years certainly haven't been kind to you, have they... Father?"

Notes:

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