Chapter 2: Horror at Hogwarts
Annie's initial relief at not having landed flat on her ass was soon gone once she realized she was knee-deep in water. She waded towards the lakeshore, while inventing new and exciting profanities about a certain goddess. As she stood on the shore trying to wrench the water out of her strange dress-like garment, she took a glance at the huge castle in front of her and immediately realized where she was.
Wow! She wasn't kidding, was she? Right in the damn story. The castle looks just like in the movie.
Except it didn't. Annie soon picked out subtle differences, stuff that, if her two-year-old memories of the books were correct, more closely matched the mind of the author than that of the movie director. She stood still for a couple of minutes, orienting herself, and just savouring the experience. She didn't notice the three students until they were passing right by her. Two boys and a girl, they too were wearing robes. Annie noticed the red in their school uniforms, and checked her own.
Yellow? Hufflepuff!? I'm so going to kill Athena!
But Annie's fond daydreams of premeditated murder were quickly interrupted when she saw who the students were. One was a tall boy with red hair, the other a girl with rather bushy hair, while the third wore glasses, had black hair and looked so like the guy on the book-covers it was spooky. Annie was so busy sizing them up, she didn't notice them staring back.
"What are you looking at?" the redhead asked.
"Er…" Annie began, "at Harry. Harry Potter. Yeah. Because he defeated Lord You-Know-Who." Oh yeah, really smooth there, Annie. You'll blend right in, no problem.
The redhead rolled his eyes. "More than three years and they still haven't gotten over you."
"That's not nice, Ron," the girl said. She sounded like a lecture waiting to happen. "I haven't seen her before, so she could be new. Are you new?"
Faced with a not-too-difficult question, Annie grinned. "Yeah. I transferred today. So I'm new and haven't seen Harry before. Tell me, what year are you in?"
Harry spoke up for the first time. "Fourth." A-ha! Goblet of Fire. I know this, there's the tournament and that Mad-Eye guy and in the end… Annie was interrupted in her musings by the three turning and going.
"W-Wait," she called out, almost tripping over her robes as she ran after Harry and the others. "Harry, Ron, Hermione, right?" Ron and Hermione looked a bit stunned at being named, but Annie went on anyway. "Look, I need your help. I have an assignment from Dumbledore and it's really important. It's about… a dark witch at this school." She certainly had their attention then.
"A Death Eater," Hermione whispered. "Here? Oh, Harry. What are we going to do?" Annie saw no reason to correct her. "Who is it? It can't be one of the teachers, can it?"
"I don't know who it is. Listen, Dumbledore said it was alright for me to tell you. I'm a dark witch hunter."
"You're an Auror?" Harry breathed. Oh yeah, that's what they're called!
"I most certainly am! I have been sent undercover to find the Death Eater and destr… bring her to justice. But I'll need your help. You need to tell me if you've noticed anything unusual lately. Someone who has been acting suspiciously." Annie gave herself several mental pats on the back.
"Snape," said Ron immediately. "Snape's acting really suspiciously."
Annie sighed. "Look, I know how you feel about Snape, and how you always suspect him. Yes, I know he's mean…"
"But that's it!" Ron interrupted. "He's been so… nice!" A series of warning bells went off in Annie's head. "You remember how he was before."
"Yeah but, that's a good thing, right?" Harry asked. "He's not giving me a hard time, he told me he's forgiven my father and he went fishing with Neville yesterday."
Oh, I'm on to you, Mary Sue. "And when did this most interesting change happen?" But they had stopped listening to her. Instead they had turned to face a blond boy who had just arrived. Annie recognized the boy immediately, which is why what happened next hurt her mind like nails across a blackboard.
Harry and Ron were grinning widely, hands raised in greeting. Draco was smiling too as he walked towards them with what Annie, despite the protests of every cell in her body, had to describe as a spring in his step. Dear God, make it stop, make it stop! But it didn't. Harry and Draco embraced. They actually embraced. Tearing her eyes off such an offence to God and Rowling, Annie noticed Hermione standing with her back turned and her nose in the air. She moved closer.
"Look, Hermione, I know you're really smart. You have to notice how…" But Hermione wasn't listening to her. She was muttering to herself continuously.
"…oh, just because he has little Miss Perfect as his girlfriend, the bitch! Has to come here and be better than me in all subjects. 'Why can't you master that spell, Hermione? Why can't you produce a Patronus, Hermione? Why aren't you at the Quidditch team, Hermione?' I hope she dies, she deserves to die, the bitch, Draco's little darling, I'll show you…"
Annie was taken aback at what she'd heard. I may not have perfect memory of the books, but I'm pretty sure Emma Watson never used language like that in the movies. "Hermione. Hermione."
Hermione ceased her muttering and glared at Annie. "Hermione, Draco's girlfriend, what's her name?"
Hermione sniffed and practically spat out the name: "Britney Riddle!" Bingo!
Annie smiled, leaned over Hermione's shoulder and whispered into her ear: "It's her!"
Hermione's expression of pure joy might have been disturbing if Annie didn't know she wore the exact same one.
