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nna didn't sleep very
well that night. She dreamt again of
Harry Potter. Only this time he was
accompanied by two others: a girl with bushy, brown hair, and rather large front
teeth and a tall, skinny boy with hair the color of flames. The boy with the silver blond hair stood off
to the side, devilishly smirking. He
had soft, but cold gray eyes, but they only reflected the redness of
Anna's. Suddenly she turned her back to
him only to face a dark, hooded figure. Its face wasn't visible, just its glowing red eyes. As the figure came closer Anna shivered and
tried to run away. She ran towards
Harry Potter yelling, "Run, Harry Potter, run! You won't be so lucky this time!
Run!" She only had time to see Harry
double over with pain, clutching his forehead, before she felt a cold hand on
her shoulder. She again turned to face
the dark figure. Its eyes were still
glowing a deathly red. It began to
lower its hood—
"NO!" Anna yelled, waking up in a cold sweat, heart
racing. She sighed, thankful it was a
dream, and glanced at her sleeping mother in the next bed. Good thing she's a heavy sleeper, Anna
thought. She had no intentions of
telling her mother about her dreams, or anything at all for that matter.
Anna laid back down and had much welcomed
dreamless sleep the rest of the night.
The next morning
Danielle woke Anna up around 10:30 to go school supply shopping. There were
tons of supplies Anna needed and only this one day to get them all, since
school started on the next. Anna was very reluctant to walk through Diagon
Alley. What if she saw Harry Potter or the silver-blond headed kid? What if her
eyes became red again? She couldn't go out there. She couldn't risk it all like
that. If that happened then everyone would know, without a shadow of a doubt.
Anna, being the quick-witted and powerful witch that she
was, put a charm on herself that would make her sick for as long as she needed.
"Mom…" Anna said very congestedly.
"Oh, hunny, you don't sound good at all!" shrieked
Danielle. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, Mom, I'm fine," replied Anna, getting more and
more stuffy with every word. "I can't wait to go buy all my books and robes
and…" she trailed off as she began getting out of bed, but Danielle pushed her
right back down.
"Oh, no you don't! You're not going anywhere, young lady.
You sound absolutely terrible! I'll just have to do the shopping for you." She
tapped Anna's nose gently.
"But—" Anna started, trying to get back up, but her
mother cut her off.
"But nothing. You're to stay right here in bed and feel
better—"
"UH! —"
"AND, if you feel better when I come back, I'll take you
to Florean Fortescue's for some ice cream. Okay?"
"Alright, alright," sighed Anna, deciding this was the
perfect place to give in. As her mother
gathered the list and locked the door behind her, Anna sang a little song of
triumph under her breath. She waited a few minutes to make sure her mother was
gone, threw back the sheets, and pranced over to the mirror. "You're a wonderful
actress, darling. Simply wonderful!" she cooed to herself in her best Hollywood
voice.
Anna went over the window, held her breath and pulled
open the curtains. She exhaled, relieved, when she saw that no one was gazing up
at her. She opened her trunk and rummaged through it. "Ah… here it is." She let
the smooth, silky, silver material of her invisibility cloak run through her
fingers. Memories of her brother
flooded her mind. She remembered so clearly what he'd said to her the day that
he left.
"Here, Anna," he'd said. "Take this, but don't let Mom
find out you've got it." He too, she remembered, had lost his British accent.
"I don't want her to bitch at you 'cause of me. Plus, I don't want her to take it. If you decide to join me, use
this. You'll be able to find me; it's family instinct," he finished, placing
his hand over his heart and winking at her. With that he kissed her on the
cheek, hugged her, and slipped out of his bedroom window and into the darkness
of the night. Anna stood there, staring
at his open window, and the curtains blowing in the hot July breeze. She fell
to the floor, crying harder than she ever had in her whole life. She glanced at
the clock. 3:33 am. That just made her cry even harder. Her and Xavier's
special number had always been three. Once she'd stopped her sobs, she let the
material of the cloak flow over her hands. She'd been so grateful for Xavier's
gift, and still was. However, she decided at that very time that she would use
the cloak for everything except what Xavier had suggested.
Coming back to reality she realized she was crying. She
glanced at herself in the mirror. "Stop it," she hissed, harshly wiping her
eyes with the back of her hand. She grabbed her sack of wizard money, her wand,
threw the cloak over her shoulders, and slammed the door shut behind her.
The pub was almost empty, except for a very large man
with a scraggly beard who was trying to sit on a small barstool and failing
terribly. He seemed to be having a very vivid conversation with Tom, but Anna
couldn't understand a word of it because of the man's heavy Scottish accent.
Walking around the corner, Anna came face to face with a
very familiar brick wall. "Up three, over two…" she tapped her wand on the
final brick and the wall vanished. As Anna walked through, she had just enough
time to turn back and see the huge archway closing behind her. "So… Diagon
Alley. We meet again."
Being invisible, there wasn't much she could do; but then
again… the possibilities seemed endless. First, however, she went to the spot where she had seen Harry Potter the
day before. None of the people from her
dream where anywhere to be seen. She looked up at her own window, wondering how
much of her face they had been able to see and how much detail. Not much, she hoped. What a way to start the
new term, with Harry Potter walking up to her and saying "Oh, didn't I see your
eyes glowing red like Lord Voldemort's two days ago?" Anna didn't think she
could handle that.
She began walking up and down the streets. She glimpsed
her mother a couple times; once in Madam Malkin's buying robes for herself, and
again in Flourish and Blotts just looking around. After Anna looked around a
bit in Dervish and Bangs and looked at the ice cream flavors at Florean
Fortescue's, she headed back to the hotel room. Just in time, too. As she was
heading back to the archway she saw her mother heading in the same direction.
Anna quickly snapped her fingers and apparated to the hotel room. She knew she
couldn't make it before her mother any other way. Most people can't apparate
until they are well out of school, and Anna knew this, her mother had told her
several times. Because of her, um, family history, she could at only 6 years
old. Same with Xavier.
Once in the hotel room, Anna quickly tucked the cloak
back into the bottom of her trunk and hopped into bed pretending to be asleep.
About a minute later, her mother opened the door. Crap, Anna thought, I forgot
to lock the door back. Oh, I hope she doesn't notice. Luckily, she didn't.
"Anna…" said Danielle in a sing-songy voice. "Wake up,
sweets."
"Huh?" Anna said, rubbing her eyes as her mom said down
on the edge of her bed.
"Are you feeling any better?" Danielle reached forward to
feel her daughter's head. "You look better, that's for sure." She got up and
walked over to a pile of shopping bags. Anna noticed her mother's new robes.
They were bright blue. "I got all your supplies. Here, come try these on." She
pulled black robes out of a Madam Malkin's bag. "I told her your name and your
age and she said these should do just fine." They were long and sleek, with
very wide sleeves and a silver emblem on the left side of the collar, which
Anna assumed was the Hogwarts emblem.
"How could she tell what size I wore just by what you
told her?" Anna asked, now getting out of bed.
"Oh, I don't know," replied Danielle, kind of
absentmindedly. "She said she just knew. Here, slip this on over your nightclothes." She handed Anna the robes.
Anna pulled them on over her head and was very surprised
that they fit perfectly.
"I suppose she was right!" said Danielle, clasping her
hands together and resting her chin on her fingertips.
"Yeah," Anna said, smoothing down the black material, "I
suppose so."
"Also on your list were dress robes. I wasn't sure what
you'd like so I got two and figured you could take both and just decide
whenever you needed them." Danielle pulled two robes out of the bag and gave
them to Anna. The first was silver and reminded Anna of her invisibility cloak,
only it was darker and more glittery. It was very elegant, with a high collar
and belled sleeves. The next was a deep
royal purple with little frills around the hems, the collar, and the bottoms of
the sleeves.
"I hope we need dress robes twice in the year so that I
can wear them both. I don't think I could decide which one I like more." Anna
folded them nicely and laid them down on the end of her bed.
"This wasn't on your list," Danielle said, pulling a dome
shaped object with a black sheet over it out from behind one of the taller
bags, "but I knew it would come in handy."
"What is it?" Anna asked curiously.
"Take it," Danielle said, pushing it into her daughter's
hands. "See for yourself."
Anna took the object and sat down on the end of the bed
with it. She pulled the black sheet off
to reveal a beautiful snowy owl sleeping inside a large brass cage. "Oh, wow!"
gasped Anna.
"I knew you'd like her," said Danielle, smiling.
"Oh, more than you know!" Anna squealed, jumping up to
hug her mom. "What's her name?"
"That I thought I'd leave up to you. Oh, and here's the
food," Danielle said, pulling a sack out of the inside pocket of her robes.
Anna reached up to grab the bag but Danielle snatched it away playfully. "Uh,
uh, uh! You only get to keep her on one condition."
"Oh? What's that?" Anna asked, mimicking her mother's
accent, her old one.
"You can keep her as long as she is flying back to me
twice a week with an update on how things are going."
"Oh, she will, I promise!"
"Alright, then," Danielle laughed, kissing her daughter
lightly on the nose. "Now, get up and
start putting these things into your trunk. It's nearly two o' clock. After you
do that, get dressed and we'll go have that ice cream I promised. You can wear one
of my new robes."
"Okay," said Anna, as she moved all the shopping bags
over to her trunk. She loaded her new robes, books, inks, quills, cauldron,
scales, and spices into her trunk, careful to hide her invisibility cloak.
She
changed into a dark teal robe, and she and her mother trudged down the stairs
and into the little pub. The large man was still there. She was surprised when
her mother walked right up to him, slapped him on the back and said, "Well,
hello there, Rubeus! It's been quite a long time, hasn't it?!"
The giant looked up, startled, but he smiled
and laughed jauntily when he saw Danielle.
"Hullo
ter yer, too. Gawsh… Danielle Morgan. It has been a long time! How 'ave ya
been?"
"Oh,
I've been doing pretty well. You remember my daughter Anna, don't you?"
Danielle said, slinging her arm around Anna. Anna smiled.
"Ah,
yes. Hullo there, Anna. Ya prolly don' remember me, eh?"
"No,
I don't, sorry," Anna said quietly, looking down at the floor.
"This
is Rubeus Hagrid. He and I are old friends. He's the game keeper at Hogwarts.
We've kept in touch ever since I graduated."
"Yeh,
last time I saw ya, you were just a lil' thing, about two er three years old."
Anna
smiled again, not knowing what else she could say. She stuck her hand out and
said in her sweet American accent, "Well, it's been a pleasure to have met you,
Mr. Hagrid." His huge hand completely engulfed Anna's as he shook it very
violently. Anna figured this was about as gently as this man could shake a
hand, so she just smiled back, rubbing her shoulder a bit.
"Please,
just Hagrid."
"Well,
Hagrid, then."
Anna
smiled and sat down on a bar stool a seat down from Hagrid, and her mother sat
between them.
"'Ello,
Miss Morgan," the bartender said to her.
"Hello,
Tom, how have you been?" She remembered him very well. Whenever they were
passing through he'd give her and Xavier free chocolate frogs. He started their
enormous collection of the little trading cards inside the chocolate. Together,
she and Xavier had almost the whole collection.
"What
can I git you, Anna?" Tom asked in his sweet cockney accent.
"Oh,
I'll just have some hot tea, please. It's been so long since I've had that."
"Alrigh',
one 'ot tea, coming righ' up!"
As
Tom prepared her drink she looked around the tiny pub. It was empty except for
the four of them. She heard Hagrid ask her mother some thing about Xavier. Anna
looked away quickly, but heard her mother reply that we hadn't heard from him
since the day he left. She and Hagrid
continued to talk about how things had been in London since they'd left.
"Lucius
Malfoy has a boy that'll be in the fifth year with Anna. Name's Draco. Evil lil' thin', he is. I
'spect he'll turn out same as his father. No offense, er anythin'."
"Oh,
none taken, Rubeus. I'm trying to keep Anna as far away from that sort of thing
as possible. She didn't want to come back here. It was hard for me, too, but I
did the right thing, didn't I? I mean, we've got to face it some time. She's
fifteen now. I think she's old enough, don't you?"
"Yer
righ', Danielle. Ya can' keep runnin' forever."
"Thank
you, Rubeus. That makes me feel better. Promise me you'll watch over her this
year, will you?"
"I
promise. You've got me word. Harry and his friends Ron and Hermione 'ave bin
comin' down ter me hut ever since they were first years. It'd be a pleasure for
Anna ter come, too."
"I'm
not sure if she'll be making friends with Harry Potter," said Danielle,
quietly. Anna heard loud and clear, though, and winced at Harry's name. "You
know, after everything that's happened with her—"
"Anna?"
She jerked out of the conversation. "Anna, 'ere's your tea."
"Wha'?
Oh, thank you, Tom."
"And,
just for old time's sake…" he trailed off reaching underneath the counter, "'ow
about a choc'late frog?"
"Oh,
thank you so much, Tom. How much do I owe you?"
"This
is on the 'ouse, Anna. It's enough just to see you and your mum again."
Anna
sipped her tea and tried her hardest not to listen to Hagrid's and her mother's
conversation. She was relieved when Danielle finally got up.
"Well,
it certainly has been nice to talk to you again, Rubeus, and thank you for the
drinks, Tom. We must be going, now, though. I promised Anna some ice cream at
Florean's. She wasn't feeling good earlier."
Anna
winked at Tom and waved good-bye to Hagrid and she and her mother walked
through the archway into Diagon Alley.
They
sat at a small table under a large magenta umbrella. They both ordered
chocolate ice cream with white chocolate fudge dribbled over the top.
"I
received a letter from Hogwarts a couple days ago," said Danielle as they ate
their ice cream.
"What
did it say? Why didn't you tell me?" asked Anna, shocked.
"You
knew it came. It was the letter that had your supply list and the letter
welcoming you to Hogwarts. There was another part to it. It was to me, saying
that you would be in Gryffindor—"
"What?
What's that?"
"Oh,"
Danielle laughed. "Gryffindor is one of the four houses at Hogwarts. There's
that one, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin. Your father and I were in Slytherin."
"Mother,
please don't talk about him…" Anna said through semi-clenched teeth staring
down at her ice cream.
"I'm
sorry, Anna, but you've got to know about him. He is your father, no
matter what's he's become. Without him, you wouldn't be here."
"I
know, I know. But when I enroll in Hogwarts tomorrow and the headmaster says my
name, I'm going to be Anna Morgan, not Riddle. That way I won't get
talked about. I'd actually like to have friends here, like the ones I had in
America. I don't want Harry Potter to duck for cover every time he sees me
coming."
"Oh,
speaking of him, he's also in Gryffindor."
"Oh,
God, are you serious?"
"Anna,
calm down," said Danielle, putting her hand over Anna's. "It'll be fine. The
Gryffindor house has been known to produce the best good witches and wizards.
You can't go wrong. Just be sure you make friends with the right people."
"Alright,
alright," sighed Anna.
"I've
only one more question, then I'll let you finish your ice cream in peace.
"Okay…"
"Have
you decided what you're going to name your owl yet?"
"Oh,
yes," said Anna, shaking her head. She was relieved it wasn't another question
about her father. "I'm going to name her January."
"January?
Why?"
"'Cause
she is white, like snow in January."
"Oh,
ok. That makes sense then."
They
finished their ice cream without much conversation, went back to the pub for
some dinner, and then to the inn for the night.
Anna
was very nervous, but also quite excited as she fell asleep that night. There
was no turning back now.