Chapter 4: An unfamiliar ceiling

Anastasia watched as an odd yellowish-green cloud drifted lazily over to her. Looking down the line she saw her camarades watch with a tense sort of excitement. They knew what was coming. In a few minutes the Germans would charge forth from their strange smoke screen. Anastasia cycled the bolt of her Lebel, raising the rifle to her shoulder and looking down the sight, waiting with bated breath for the assault.

Minutes passed and the Germans never came, the cloud was almost upon them now, just a few more seconds and it would be on top of her. Anastasia wondered what the Germans were doing, the Prussians were known for their skill at waging war and there was no way this wasn't part of some nefarious plan, the question was just what they were planning.

Anastasia soon got her answer as her eyes began to burn, taking a deep breath at the sudden pain only caused the burning to spread down her throat, engulfing her entire body. Throwing open her greatcoat she began to panic. It hurt so much and she couldn't breathe. Placing her hand over her mouth as he coughed violently, Anastasia looked in horror as her hand came back covered in blood. Pushing herself off the bank of the trench, Anastasia began running along the trench hoping to get out of the toxic cloud. She wasn't sure how long she ran before back spots began to appear in her already greatly diminished vision. Her legs began to shake before collapsing completely. It was there, lying in the mud that she died.

Anastasia jerked awake, coughing violently, eyes streaming and shivering. She felt hands grab onto her, and voices shouting panickedly. She tried to throw them off but found herself too weak. As the last vestiges of her dream faded, Adrian looked down at her too-small hands, she'd reverted back to her original form.

Jerking violently Adrian managed to throw off the hands "Get off me!"

Gazing around the room Adrian noticed he didn't know where he was, the room was painted in a frankly eye-watering crimson, the ceiling an equally disgusting gold, a far cry from the faded beige of her flat, whoever painted this room clearly had no taste. This led her to think about the elephant in the room, or more specifically the woman to his right. A woman who looked almost identical to his transformed body, and rather similar to his original one too. They had the same copper hair and vivid green eyes and similar facial structures. The woman looked at him with a worried expression that made his skin crawl. To her left stood two remarkably similar men, both had messy black hair, though one was longer and waiver, both had brown eyes and aristocratic features, they were clearly related in some way. The one with the wavy hair looked at him with an inscrutable expression while the other, the shorter of the two, had an expression of what looked to be guilt. It was all rather confusing and left Adrian feeling mightily uncomfortable.

There stood further back from the rest was Remus Lupin who looked as uncomfortable as Adrian felt, guilt was written all over his face and he turned away in shame when their eyes met. That, that confused Adrian, what this man had to be ashamed of she simply didn't know. If anyone should be feeling shame it should be her, she was, after all, the one that underestimated him and let herself get kidnapped. Unless…

"Remus?"

The man started, his mouth opening and closing as if he wanted to say something but couldn't quite figure out what to say. Adrian decided to put him out of his misery.

"Did you do anything-" Adrian paused searching for the right word "inappropriate to me while I was unconscious?"

A look of horror came over his face as the others fixed him with horrified and angry gazes, they looked positively murderous, which was rather odd, why they cared so much was quite the mystery, though one he had not time to puzzle over as Remus began vehemently denying the accusations. Though it seemed to have little effect.

"Then why do you look as though you have, I mean I can't think of anything else you need to look guilty and ashamed of."

Remus looked at him incredulously "I kidnapped you!"

"You did indeed, and you can make up for that by letting me go, besides you only got me because I underestimated you. If anyone should be ashamed it's me."

Adrian swung his legs out of the bed, her bare feet sinking into the impossibly soft carpet. Pushing himself to his feet, Adrian found himself stumbling, his body not knowing how to operate at this greatly reduced height. The woman reached to steady him but Adrian smacked her hand away. "I don't need your help!" The woman flinched back as if struck at the venom in his voice.

Adrian pushed past the woman bodily, making his way to the door, only for it to open, admitting a positively ancient man.

"Ah, Adrian, my boy, you're finally awake?"

Adrian thought it was a rather redundant question, given how he was, well, standing up and glaring at the elderly man, though as much as he wanted to he couldn't be too angry at the man, after all, people tended to go a little mad as they got older. "It certainly seems that way."

The man smiled down at him, in what he felt was a rather patronising way, his eyes twinkling in a rather bizarre manner. He looked perfectly friendly, and that put Adrian on edge, in his experience it was those who looked nicest that were often the most merciless and ruthless. His Aunt and Uncle for example, to everyone else they were perfectly nice, often doing things for charity and the like, behind closed doors however, well, it spoke volumes that Adrian would rather die painfully in his dreams every night than go back.

"We were a little worried that nothing we seemed to do would rouse you from your slumber."

"What can I say, I'm a heavy sleeper. Now if you'll excuse me." Adrian made to move around the man but was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. Adrian felt his eye twitch in irritation, there was something about this elderly man that got under his skin in a way very few others could.

"I know you're excited to explore your new home but there are a few things we need to discuss first."

Adrian felt his irritation growing "New home? I'm not quite sure I understand, You kidnapped me and now you're making me live with you?" Adrian looked contemplative for a moment, trying to solve this inscrutable puzzle, whoever these people were their actions made no sense. Well that's not quite true, if what he suspected was correct, and he thought it was, it made a strange sort of sense, of course, he wasn't going to just reveal he knew who they were and what they were doing. He was going to make them pay for taking him from his home, even if it was only by making them squirm. A look of understanding came over his face "Ah! This is a brothel, isn't it? It would make sense why you kidnapped me. I imagine it was quite the shock when I turned into a small child, unless, of course, you knew I was a child. The real question is how you knew who I was."

The red-haired woman gulped and looked a little green. "Y-you think this is a brothel?"

Adrian cast his eyes around noticing, with vindictive pleasure, the looks of disgust and horror on the faces of the other residents, well all except the old man, his eye twinkling with mirth. Perhaps he wasn't as bad as he thought.

Adrian turned away from the other people, not even trying to hide the smile on his face "Well, what other reason would you have for bringing me here? I mean it's not like you're my parents or anything, I mean that would be ridiculous, besides, what kind of parent would abandon their child on a doorstep in the middle of a cold November night only to kidnap their child ten years later? Not very good ones that's who."

"You knew?" It was the shorter of the two men that spoke, indignation and no small amount of amusement laced his voice, the taller man next to him blatantly laughing.

"It wasn't all that difficult to figure out, I mean Remus over there told me he was a friend of my parents, and here is a woman who looks almost identical to me. Though I doubt I would have put two and two together if the Dursleys didn't so enjoy telling me how my parents dumped me on their doorstep or took so much pleasure in telling me how much I looked like my whore mother."

The woman, his mother, he supposed, huffed, muttering something under her breath.

The old man smiled genially down at him "Now then, I believe it's time to move onto more serious matters."

The man-made to continue but Adrian cut him off "Indeed like, for example, why you felt the need to kidnap me, I mean you could have just spoken to me, who knows I might have even listened."

"While it is regrettable that we had to resort to such methods, we had to keep you safe."

"I'll have you know that I was perfectly safe until you decided to take an interest in me." That wasn't strictly true he could have died at any time, but Adrian felt that was simply the risk he took for freedom, it was a luxury he had and would do anything for.

"That's a lie and you know it, Remus told us what you were doing at night. How you could have died at any time, how you went home each morning battered and bruised, sometimes even half dead."

Adrian snorted "Why are you pretending to care now? Is it just because I'm here? Or is it because you want me to lower my guard so you can ship me off back to the Dursleys, so you can leave me to rot somewhere 'safe'?" Adrian hated how much this was affecting him, his eyes burned with unshed tears "Why now?"

"You were safe before!"

Anger overtook his anguish "Was I? Was I really? Is that why I felt it wiser to run away in the middle of winter with nothing but the clothes on my back? Is that why I feared for my life almost everyday? Is that why, when I was lying in agony in my cupboard, I used to wish that they were lying and that you were dead so that at least there would be a reason as to why you abandoned me?" Adrian took a deep shuddering breath, as he exhaled he felt as though a weight had been lifted off his shoulders, a weight he hadn't even realised was there. It felt good to let it all out, but now he just felt tired. "Well, I guess none of it matters now, I'm stuck here. Despite what you may think I'm not an idiot, I know this is a fight I cannot win. I would also like to make it explicitly clear that I am here against my will and under great duress."

His mother looked horrified by something, though what it was he had no idea. When she spoke her voice held an odd sort of shakiness, almost as though she was going to cry. "They locked you in a cupboard?"

Ah, that would be it then "Yes, it was the one under the stairs, honestly not that bad as far as cupboards go, rather large compared to all the others in the house so, y'know can't complain. Well, I can but there's no point, not now that I've left. I had a good life you know. Sure it was dangerous but I was free. I could sleep in a bed, eat full meals, go outside whenever I wanted, take hot showers, honestly, it was like I'd died and gone to heaven." Adrian paused as a revelation hit him, his voice shaking as he spoke "I-I was happy. For the first time in my life I was actually glad I was alive. I had found my place in the world. It was the job of me and my comrades to protect those who could not protect themselves, we were fighting a losing war and you just took one of the most experienced soldiers away from the front, but I doubt you care, given how you abandoned me." Adrian's voice had gotten stronger as he spoke and while he didn't raise it he still commanded the attention of all in the room. His hands were shaking with righteous indignation as he coldly regarded his mother. He wanted to shout and scream at her, at them all. To vent years of frustration and anger, but he didn't and as quickly as it came, his anger abated.

Adrian sighed heavily and looked to the old man "Can I at least pick up my stuff from my flat?"

The old man looked slightly shocked before smiling again "I expected you to argue more, your siblings certainly would and of course you can pick up your things, though I will be accompanying you."

Adrian scowled slightly, both at being compared to people he had never met, and who likely had a completely different upbringing and at being escorted to his flat. "I know when a battle is lost, you outnumber me five-to-one and I doubt I can pull a Tannenberg on you."

The old man grabbed his shoulder and with a crack and the sensation of being squeezed through a tube, Adrian found himself being roughly deposited in an alleyway, just a few minutes walk from his flat. His feet slammed to the ground and he found his legs buckling from the force, it was only due to the deceptively strong grip of the old man that he avoided falling to the floor.

Drawing himself up Adrian began to walk towards his flat, all the while he pulled on the magic that pulsed within his core, drew it to the surface and used its seemingly limitless power to reshape himself, he felt his bones creak and stretch, his skin pulled taut and then pulled more to fit his new frame. He felt his clothes shift, the soft cotton of whatever he had been dressed in changing to become thick and woollen. Holding her hand out Anastasia felt a felt cap fall into it, which she promptly pulled onto her head. With strides now lengthened by her increased height, she made short work of the remaining distance, not even casting a glance back to see if the old man was following her.

The dull grey building soon came into view, though rather than walking through the main entrance Anastasia walked to a thick metal door round the side. Slamming the side of her fist onto the metal Anastasia alerted her landlord to her presence. The landlord, a rather odd Russian by the name of Alexei, pulled a thick slat to the side, before looking her up and down. When she had first moved here it had unnerved her but now she was simply used to it. There was no lust in his gaze, the man was simply paranoid beyond belief, though from what he had told her of his life in the USSR it was perfectly justified. Anastasia imagined there were lots of people that wanted him dead.

The man launched into what seemed like benign pleasantries in rather fast Russian but was, in fact, his half of a passphrase, the answer to which Anastasia quickly muttered back. Alexei smiled at her and through another slat passed her a set of keys. Thanking him Anastasia grabbed the keys, gesturing for the old man to follow.

"I was not aware you spoke Russian."

The man's tone seemed polite but Anastasia was not stupid enough to fall for his genial facade, the man reminded her of a sleeping lion, or perhaps Russia. In that too many it seemed safe and weak, but that appearance hid the ferocity and danger that dwelt within, it took time to stir it into action, but when it was ready it would rip your face off.

"How would you, as far as I know, we've never met."

"Oh I knew you quite well back when you were a baby, though I suppose you wouldn't remember."

Anastasia simply huffed and showed him up several flights of stairs, coming to a stop outside a faded black door. Unlocking the door and wincing at the squeaking hinges Anastasia led the man in, shutting the door behind her.

She wanted nothing more than to shed the uncomfortable leather boots and slip on something more comfortable but she would only be here for a few moments. Slipping into her bedroom Anastasia gathered her rather meagre possessions, consisting mostly of clothes. When she first got this 'job' she suspected she would buy anything and everything, but it seemed she was more miserly than she expected, hoarding what wealth she could, knowing that at any moment she could be catapulted back into poverty.

Anastasia walked back into the living room, a bag of clothes under one arm, a safe under the other.

"Nice place you've got here."

Anastasia cast an appraising eye around her flat, her nose wrinkling slightly in distaste, even she, who loved the place more than she thought possible, couldn't say the place was nice.

"You don't need to lie, I know it's a shit hole."

The old man seemed amused by her bluntness. "That everything?"

"Almost. Illium, come on, we're moving."

The old man's eyes widened slightly, before twinkling madly at the sight of a black cat crawling out from under the sofa. The cat coolly regarded the man before mewling to its owner, who crouched and allowed the cat to climb onto her shoulder where it perched itself, rather like a bird.

"Alright, that's everything." The man grabbed her shoulder again, and within a second she found herself back in the room she'd woken up in.

Upon her appearance, Anastasia found herself faced with several wooden sticks, though she couldn't guess the relevance she knew when she was being threatened, and with nary a thought, she felt a cold metal surface fall into her hand. Anastasia raised the metal object, holding it in plain view in front of herself.

After a few seconds of standoff during which the old man did nothing to attempt to diffuse the situation, Anastasia felt she would have to take matters into her own hands, her voice calm but held a certain hardness, it wasn't the first time she'd been in a situation like this, outnumbered and face with opponents she didn't know the capabilities of. "Know then why don't we all put our weapons down and discuss things like rational people?"

The taller of the two men laughed "You call that a weapon, it looks like a metal potato masher."

Anastasia quirked her brow before looking down at the Russian Model 1914 grenade, the man was right it really didn't look like much and wasn't all that recognisable as a grenade. "At least I have a real weapon, what are you going to do with those sticks? Poke me to death? You make a single move and I'll kill us all, and if you think you can get me before I use this I feel I should tell you that the way this grenade works is that the fuse starts when I let go of it, so unless I disarm it attacking me in any way will result in your death. So once again why don't we all put our weapons down and discuss things like civilised people."

Anastasia watched as they slowly lowered their sticks, while she began the rather irritating process of disarming her grenade, normally she'd have just thrown it somewhere to explode, but even in a room as large as this that wasn't an option. Perhaps the movement of her hand set the man off, or perhaps he was simply waiting for her to lower he guard, but the taller of the two men raised his stick and were partway through some Latin sounding phrase when a flash of red light shot past her and the man's stick was ripped from his hand by some invisible force. Anastasia whipped round to see the old man holding a similar stick though it was pointed at the man.

The old man shot them all with a disapproving stare before saying "I am shocked that an eleven year old has more sense than all of you combined." The man clapped his hand and smiled widely at them all "Now that's out of the way I believe introductions are in order. While you have all met, I believe it best to pretend we haven't." The old man held out his hand, eyes twinkling with amusement, though what he found funny was anyone's guess. "Albus Dumbledore."

Anastasia shook his hand "Anastasia Von DeWight, though it seems you're more familiar with my old name, Adrian Potter, it's a pleasure."

The room was silent for a few moments until Lupin stepped forward offering his hand "Remus Lupin."

Anastasia shook his hand before looking at the woman "I assume you're Lily then?" At her not Anastasia turned to the two unnamed men. "And which one of you is James then?"

The shorter of the two men stepped forward "That would be me."

Anastasia simply nodded and turned to the taller of the two with a glare "And who might you be?"

"Sirius Black."

"A pleasure. Now that we've got the formalities out of the way I would like you to show me to my room."

"This is it."

Anastasia stared at James incredulously before dumping her stuff on the bed with a sigh "I suppose I can always paint it."

James and Sirius looked as though Anastasia had slapped them, the shock was honestly quite amusing. Though their shock did make Anastasia worry for their sanity, how anyone could think that bright red and gold were a good combination was beyond her. It was far too vivid for her, she hadn't even been here a day yet and she already missed her flat. It was going to be a long... Anastasia paused, how long was she going to be here? They simply kidnapped her and said she'd be living here but gave no indication as to why or for how long.

"So, how long am I going to be stuck here? I mean I have things to do."

Lily and James looked at each other and seemed to have a silent conversation before Lily turned to her and said what Anastasia was really hoping she wouldn't. "Until you're an adult I guess."

Anastasia looked deep in thought for a moment "Yeah, I just don't think that's going to work, see I have a life and honestly there very little I could find less appealing than being forced to live here for the next eight years."

Albus placed his hand on her shoulder "I'm afraid you have no choice in the matter."

Anastasia sighed "I feared as much, but I reserve the right to go out whenever I want. I've become rather accustomed to my new life and won't let you take it away from me."

Lily looked outraged "Absolutely not, it's far too dangerous!"

"And? Life's dangerous, we could all drop dead at any moment. I'd rather die happy, free and doing what I love, the trapped here.

Lily looked like she was about to argue but was cut off by the old man "I'm afraid that if you want Adrian to be even slightly amenable to your wishes you'll have to grant her this concession."

Anastasia clapped her hands "Great, wonderful, now that we're all on the same page, piss off. I need to unpack and don't want you all hovering over me the entire time."

Albus smiled at him, an air of smugness around him "No, need." With a wave of his stick everything Anastasia owned filed itself away neatly. "Now then, I believe you siblings are going to break down the door if we don't let them in soon."

"Please don't."

Albus smiled as he waved the door open. Anastasia was tempted to just shoot the man, but, in the end decided not to, she couldn't fault him, she'd do the same. As the door swung open two people, who she presumed were her siblings, fell into the room. Anastasia glared at Albus "I hate you."

"You and a great many others I'm sure. Now then, Harry, Rose I would like to introduce you to Anastasia Von DeWight, though I imagine you're more familiar with her other name, Adrian Potter."

The boy, who she presumed was Harry stared incredulously at her "What?"

A/N: Well here we are chapter four. Fun fact this is the longest chapter I've ever written, for anything, so that's fun. Something happened in this chapter and yet I also feel that nothing did at the same time, though that may just be because I wrote it over the course of several months, or it could be that the characters simply wanted to waste both of our time. Regardless, we both (as in me and you) did learn that my version of Dumbledore is apparently just a bit of an annoying arse but a well-meaning arse. I imagine that if I was in his situation I'd act much the same way. Anyway, enough rambling, see you next chapter (whenever that will be).