ANNIKA
Annika was awoken the next morning by an overexicted George.
"Annika, wake up." he said shaking her.
She groaned and rolled over to face him. She heard a couple more groans from across the room. She looked up to find Ginny and Hermione waking up with Harry and Ron standing over them. They looked just as excited as George did. It was too early for this.
"What?" she said rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.
"Dumbledore would like the three of you to get dressed in something comfortable." George stated. "He recommends sweat pants and a semi-loose fitting t-shirt. But that's up to you guys."
"But why?" Ginny asked stretching.
"You'll see." Harry answered with a smile. "Just get dressed and come to breakfast."
With that the three boys left the room. Annika, Ginny, and Hermione slowly crawled out of bed still trying to wake up. They opened the drawers that Mrs. Weasley had filled with muggle clothes before the rescue and pulled out sweat pants and t-shirts. None of them said a word as they put their clothes on. They were all too busy contemplating what on earth Dumbledore could possibly want them to dress like this for. Once they were all ready, (Annika took a little longer than the others, still trying not to rip anything open) they headed down to the kitchen.
The table was already laden with plates of french toast, pancakes, sausage, and bacon. All of the house occupants were at the table, already eating. Annika slipped in between George and Chris. Both of which, helped her sit without hurting herself. George then wrapped his arm around her shoulders. Even since she woke up, if they were together he had to be touching. It didn't bother her. In fact, she felt a lot safer whenever he was touching her. If the contact made him feel better too then who was she to complain.
Hermione squeezed herself between Ron and Bill. And Ginny sat between Harry and Charlie. Annika noticed that Angel was on the other side of Charlie. They seemed to be having a conversation and Angel's cheeks were the color of Ginny's hair.
Annika noticed that everyone was looking at her, Ginny, and Hermione with these odd smiles on their faces. It was like one of those "Ha! I know something you don't!" kinda of looks. Annika tried to ignore them as she began filling her plate. She had promised George, Harry, and Mrs. Weasley that she'd eat a whole plate of food at every meal. They all knew it was the only way to get her body back to its full health even if it did make her stomach hurt.
Once everyone had finished eating and Mrs. Weasley cleaned up, Dumbledore rose.
"Annika, Ginny, Hermione we have a bit of a surprise for you. Think of it as a welcome back present." he stated. "As you know, Harry, Ron, George, and Angel have been training hard for the past two months to prepare for your rescue. Now that we've succeeded, their training will continue. Especially since Voldemort, no doubt, has finally figured out that Harry's alive. He will be wanting his revenge and soon. I also suspect that you three will be his targets. He already knows how far Harry will go for each of you. And will try to take advantadge of that. Which is why I think it would benefit you three to join the training process as well. Not only to help Harry in the final fight, which I'm sure you all will, but also to be able to protect yourselves, physically, mentally, and magically from the Death Eaters."
"With all due respect Professor," Hermione piped up. "How are we suppose to protect ourselves magically without wands. Voldemort had Malfoy destroy them immediately and it isn't safe for us to go into Diagon Alley."
"That's true Miss Granger." Dumbledore answered. "However, once I knew Harry was going to live and we began planning the rescue, I asked Mr. Ollivander to make replicas of your wands." He pulled two long boxes out of his robes and handed them to Hermione and Ginny. "They aren't exactly the same but close enough to where it shouldn't make a difference."
Annika watched as the two girls opened their boxes and pulled out the wands with shaking hands. She loved how their faces lit up as the held their wands. Annika was glad to see the happiness there but she was jealous at the same time. Even if Dumbledore gave her her wand back, there was no way she could be that happy about it. She could never realize the full potential of her magic with just a wand. They could. She had another part of her magic and self that she could never get back. No matter how hard she tried. She'd always be only half of who she was without it. She laid her head on George's shoulder. George, who didn't need told how she was feeling, kissed the top of her head and squeezed her shoulder a little tighter, trying to comfort her.
"And Annika," Dumbledore continued pulling out another long box. "We found yours when we searched the apartment the day you disappeared. I put it in my office for safe keeping."
Annika thanked him and took the box. When she opened it up and pulled out the wand, it was just like she thought it would be. As happy as she was to have it back, it wasn't enough. She needed her active magic to feel complete. Without it, she'd never be strong enough to face Malfoy or Voldemort. She sighed and put her head back on George's shoulder. He kissed the top of her head again.
"We do have one more thing for you, Annika." Dumbledore stated. "Chris, if you please?"
Annika looked to Chris, who was reaching into his pocket for something. He pulled out a vial with a turquoise liquid and held it out to her. She looked at the vial and then back to Chris with a questioningly look.
"What is it?" she asked.
"Take it and find out." Chris stated.
Slowly, Annika took the vial from his hand and stared at it. She wasn't sure what to do. The last time she was told to take potions before she found out what they were, she lost everything. Yet, this one was given to her by someone she considered family. So it could only help her, right? But hadn't someone she considered family been responsible for the latter incident? She thought about what Harry had said. Trusting people wasn't going to be easy but they only way for she could do it was by taking the first step. She decided that was the best advice she could follow.
She slowly uncorked it and drank the entire potion. Nothing happened. She waited a minute and still nothing. After five minutes, everyone in the room was staring at her with smiles on their faces. Still nothing happened. Finally she got sick of it.
"Okay, what was it?" she shouted.
"You'll see love." George whispered in her ear.
Dumbledore went on talking as if she hadn't just taken a potion.
"Now, normally, I had Angel, Harry, George, and Ron in the same group for their training and just shifted teachers. However, I know some of us," He looked at each of the couples meaningfully, "Have not gotten over the seperation yet so I'm going to split you up to keep you from getting distracted. This is what I want. Harry, George, and Ron will go with Severus and continue with their Occlumency lessons. Then I want Hermione and Ginny, to go with Minerva who will teach you as many new spells and jinxes as possible. Finally, Angel and Annika will go with Chris and work on their abilities some more. I will come and tell you guys when to switch out and where to go."
It wasn't until Dumbledore ended his speech that his words hit her.
"Professor, how I am suppose to work..." she trailed off as things started clicking in her head.
The potion had given her, her magic back. How was that even possible? Just ask she was about to ask, Remus shouted,
"Hey Annika, think fast!"
Annika whipped around in her chair with just enough time to see Remus hurl a tennis ball at her. It was headed straight for her head. She wouldn't have had time to dodge it. Instead, she decided to test her theory. She brought her right hand up and flicked her wrist. The ball flew back in Rmeus's direction. He dodged and it hit the wall and then the floor. It rolled into a corner where Crookshanks began batting it around. Amazed, Annika turned back to Chris.
"How?" she asked.
"I know the warlock that brewed the potion for Voldemort. I know for a fact that he wasn't powerful enough to make a full fledged stripping potion. So Voldemort had to settle for the binding one. He, of course, told you that he stripped them to make you think that there was no hope for you to get them back." Chris explained. "My family helped me brew an unbinding potion and they blessed it with their magic. Which made it strong enough to counteract the bind."
Annika threw her arms around Chris neck, hugging him. He patted her back awkwardly for a moment before she oulled away.
"Thank you." she stated trying to fight the tears.
There were no words to describe how happy she was in that moment. She thought her powers were gone forever. Everything was perfect now. She had her freedom, family, and magic back. She felt like she could singel handedly take on anything Voldemort and his Death Eaters threw at them.
A/N: I hope you guys enjoyed this one. Sorry it's so short. I really wanted to put an emphasis on how she felt about not having her active power. I don't know why. It just felt important that you guys should know how important it is too her. Also, in case anyone's confused, Chris is not the Chris from Charmed. Yes, that's where I got his character from but it would screw up the timelines too much if I made him the actual Chris. I think that's it for the day. Review if you want. Goodnight.
