Serpents Child
Chapter 1: New place, old dreams
She ran. Her long black hair flowing behind her, her body was slick with cold sweat, her vision blurred by tears, her pulse quickening with every step as fear snaked its way through her body lazily turning her blood stone cold…
"ANNA! Get up NOW! Else there will be trouble!"
Anna rolled over and groaned as bright sunlight flooded the room, she opened her eyes a crack and saw her aunt (a tall, lean, birdlike and rather menacing woman with greying hair scraped back in a tight bun) stooped over her looking severe.
"Young lady, if you do not get up and out of bed this instant, I…I…I will send an owl to your mother and see what she has to say about you still being in bed and unpacked, when your uncle and cousin are about to depart for Kings Cross in," she looked over to the clock on the wall with 6 hands "15 minutes!" Aunt Polly shrieked, her voice rising, her face set in a characteristic scowl.
Anna sat up, stretched then yawned loudly, her mind was sluggish and groggy, she looked bleary eyed at her aunt and enquired stupidly "Kings Cross?" She frowned, as her still half asleep mind tried (and failed spectacularly) to work out why they were leaving for a train station.
Aunt Polly gave an exasperated sigh, pursed her lips and answered, "To catch the Hogwarts Express of course, sometimes I despair!"
Anna glanced over at her aunt, you are not the only one she thought and as comprehension dawned she let out a quiet "Oh."
"Its no good just sitting there, dawdling! We have already wasted enough time as it is, I see I am going to have to help you," She pulled her wand from her inside pocket and cried "pack!" as Anna's belongings flew from all corners of the room to land neatly in her trunk, Aunt Polly scowled and swept from the room. Leaving Anna staring insolently at the mirror on the wall opposite that reflected the image of a slender, 16 year old girl of medium height, with long black hair and blazing sapphire blue eyes staring insolently back at her.
By the time she'd bathed, changed and made sure her big proud barn owl Felix, was secure and comfortable in his cage, her aunt was panicking and certain that her and her cousin would miss the train, when Anna had politely asked how they where going to get to Kings Cross station, aunt Polly had answered "by train of course, you silly girl! You and your cousin are too young to apparate and as far as I know there aren't any fireplaces at the station!" this seemed to infuriate her and she began to screech louder about how late they were running.
They sprinted in to the little dingy underground station, breathlessly collected their tickets from a wizened guard and just got onto the train when it began to move.
Anna slumped onto the nearest seat giving her uncle Benedict a sweeping look as she did so taking in his sweaty overcoat, mismatched, tattered and faded muggle clothes, shiny bald head and hands clutching the two trunks, she was not the only one; muggles gave him curious glances and stares, probably wondering their silly little minds over how he had managed to run with and carry two seemingly heavy trunks (which, earlier amid all the commotion of leaving and Aunt Polly's anxious shrieks her Uncle had actually managed to remember to bewitch to be feather-light). She sneered and regained her firm hold of Felix's cage; Felix himself was ruffling his feathers and hooting indignantly.
Her cousin, (a lanky boy with short brown hair and greeny brown eyes called Henry) who was about to enter his 5th year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry, was looking over at the muggles with a look of polite interest. Anna wondered what he was really thinking about and whether or not it was her, this was not because she thought highly of herself (although truthfully she did slightly) it was because when she empathised with him (which she rarely ever did) she saw that she had entered his life as a stranger barely a week ago when her mother had charmingly dumped Anna on aunt Polly and family calling herself his cousin from abroad. Where she had decided to finish her education at Durmstrang and commence here instead; without telling him why, indeed she doubted that even Aunt Polly had ever told him that she had a sister.
