Hey everyone! I was hoping to fit all of year 3 into this chap but obviously that didn't work out. Anyway... hope you like it, not much happening here but bear with me. Third year is kind of uneventful and I don't have much to work with that would not be completely OoC for Anna.
Anna's eyes traveled over the Daily Prophet, reading the newest headlines as she munched on some fresh scones. The new house-elf, Patty, was a good cook but not like Dobby. She missed the little creature, though she guessed he was definitely happier now that he was free. With a sigh she put down the paper.
"Was uncle Sirius a Death Eater?" She asked Narcissa.
The Malfoys turned to look at her. Narcissa looked stunned. "Uncle Sirius?"
Anna shrugged. "He's your and Mother's cousin, right? That makes him my second cousin, technically speaking but since he's so much older than me I guess 'Uncle' is more in order."
"Uncle Sirius?"
"What about it?" Anna was starting to get more than a little irritated now. "We're related, so he's my uncle. What's wrong with that?"
"No, nothing." Narcissa shook her head. "Of course you wouldn't know. He's not your uncle anymore, Annabelle. His mother, my Aunt Walburga Black, blasted him off the family tree after he ran away from home. He was on thin ice as it was, being a Gryffindor and a bloodtraitor-"
"Wait, hold on." Anna cut her off. "He was cut away from the family?"
"Yes."
Anna's eye twitched. Maybe it was just her never having had a family before but… family was everything to Anna. Everything she did was for her family. You couldn't choose your family, like how she couldn't choose the fact that her parents were psychopathic torturers. How could they do that?
"That's stupid." She said. "Just because you don't agree with him doesn't mean we're no longer related. You all put so much importance in blood but when someone shares a close blood connection you don't hesitate to banish them! Do I have any other family that I don't know about?"
Draco stared at her. Lucius just raised his eyebrows and Narcissa looked more than slightly uncomfortable. She opened her mouth.
"I have another sister, Andromeda. She married a mudblood so…" Narcissa shook her head. "She has a daughter called Nymphadora. She graduated from Hogwarts the year before you a Draco entered."
"I have another cousin? And another Aunt? And you never told me?" Anna glared for a second before rubbing the bridge of her nose. "Anyway. Was Uncle Sirius a Death Eater like you, or was it just Uncle Regulus?"
Narcissa was quiet for a few minutes before she cleared her throat. "Not that I know of… He was imprisoned for the betrayal of the Potters, the murder of Peter Pettigrew and thirteen muggles and for being a Death Eater. Though Lucius and I know that he was ridiculously loyal to the Potters. We don't know if he actually did kill the muggles or Pettigrew, he was definitely skilled enough, but we know that the traitor was Pettigrew."
"How do you know that?" Draco piped up.
Lucius grimaced at his son. "You know very well that we were in the Dark Lord's inner circle, he told us many things."
Draco nodded and went back to his tea.
Anna stayed quiet, looking at her uncle. "Uncle Lucius? Would you mind if I checked something?"
"What?"
Anna hesitated. "I noticed last year that I felt a strange… sensation around Professor Snape. From his left arm."
She stood and walked over to him, placing a small hand on his left forearm. Lucius let her roll back the sleeve and fix her eyes on the dark snake emblem on the pale skin. Her fingertips brushed it lightly and a shudder ran up her spine. The nagging she felt on the outskirts of her mind wasn't uncomfortable or painful it was just… there.
"I think I can sense the Dark Mark." She muttered.
Lucius looked at her suspiciously. "Could you always feel it?"
Anna shook her head. "No. Not until I… saved the notebook."
"You didn't save it. Dumbledore had it and it was destroyed." He deadpanned.
Anna rolled her eyes at him. "Trust me. I saved it." Then she sat back down to finish her breakfast, her mind buzzing. She had only felt Snape's Dark Mark the last day at school, as if the soul fragment had had to adjust to being inside her. The pain was… it settling but what she gained from it had to be more than just sensing the Dark Mark… right? Or maybe that was just a combination of his magic and his soul.
Her hand went to a small glass flask and picked it up. It held a dark red liquid which she knew was the potion that protected her core from absorbing too much magic. Pomfrey had said that it would limit the magic she could use but her magic was still stronger than her year-mates. She opened the flask and sniffed it. It smelled… acidic, like always, with a slight tint of smoke. Honestly speaking, it was incredibly gross and she didn't want to drink it but she knew she had to. Actually, she thought she'd have to go to Pomfrey when she got back to school because lately her head had been starting to ache again. Could it be because her core was growing too quickly? Or maybe a side effect of the Horcrux?
Mentally, she sighed and chugged it down.
"Absolutely ridiculous! Have they completely lost their minds?" Anna growled as she dragged her trunk tot heir usual compartment. She slammed the door open. "Dementors! Who's idea was it anyway?!" She half yelled and unceremoniously dropped her trunk on the floor, where Vince and Greg proceeded to push it under the seats. Anna let herself fall next to Theo, offering him a small smile which he returned.
"Dolores Jane Umbridge." Pansy said, putting away her nail varnish and studying her newly purple nails. "Mother has her over for tea sometimes."
Draco sat next to Anna and Vince sat next to him, across from them sat Daphne, Pansy, Blaise and Greg. He carefully popped a few owl treats into his eagle-owl's cage and turned back to look worriedly at Anna. Temper tantrums weren't her thing.
"Well, Umbridge, whoever she may be, is the absolute stupidest person I've ever heard of. Dementors in a school! Do you know what will happen? We'll all be depressed the whole year because those fucking things suck the fucking happiness from the fucking air!" She ended up snapping.
"Anna, language!" Draco chided.
Her eyes turned to him, cold and angry, before she closed them and relaxed against the back of her seat. "That's it. Wizards have officially set new standards for idiocy. Muggles are no longer the dumbest creatures on Earth."
"Anna!" Daphne gasped.
"Oh, get over it." She waved her hand in dismissal at the blonde, wincing inwardly at the way Theo's hand had gone from resting gently on her arm to slightly digging his nails warningly in her skin. She looked at him quickly but he wasn't looking at her. His brown eyes were fixed on Daphne with a look she hadn't seen on his face before. A warning perhaps? "Can anyone tell me who the woman is?"
A tense silence stretched out for a few minutes before Blaise cleared his throat. Anna looked at him, slightly more calm now, and took him in. She had never actually paid much attention to Blaise's looks, though she had heard Daphne's extensive gushing. Not that Daphne was all that fixated on him since she got and discarded boyfriend after boyfriend every year even if she had only been a first or a second year until now. Blaise was… handsome, though he still had some growing to do like the rest of them. He had dark olive colored skin and very dark eyes which looked at everything suspiciously from under long lashes. Blaise didn't like to publicise that he was friends with them since they were mostly all of Death Eater descent, but Anna knew for a fact that he didn't really care personally as long as they weren't caught, which is why he kept himself out of the spotlight. Appearances and public opinions were on the forefront of his mind.
He used his mother's contacts well and he always did what Anna needed him to do. He wasn't stupid, he knew she was going to be important. They all did, even Daphne who had no Death Eaters in the family, and they did their best to help her, though not just because of her future standing. They were friends, as rare as it was to actually make friends in Slytherin.
"Umbridge is currently the senior undersecretary to the Minister for Magic. Mother says she looks like a toad and that nobody should ever have let her take any sort of position of power. What she does isn't as terrible as how she does it, she's far too… obviously false." Blaise scrunched his nose.
"Why? What has she done?"
"She's responsible for some of the newest anti-werewolf legislations. Nowadays they can't get jobs or anything, can't even find homes." Daphne humphed. "We had to fire all our werewolf workers from the factories and they were cheap labourers!"
Anna stared at her. "You have to be fucking kidding me." She bit out, going back to her orphanage-talk. "Anit-fucking-werewolf legislations? Sure, it's not like they're only dangerous once a moth and could get potions to control themselves completely! No, let's fucking forget that because FUCK, it's not like we're the supposedly superior ones and should have a smarter way of thinking!" By then she was just ranting, glaring at all of them yet at none in particular.
"Anna, these half-breeds-"
"Be quiet, Draco, and listen to sense. The ministry could perfectly well be handing out the Wolfsbane potion to werewolves, who would have to be registered at St Mungo's, and let them have jobs. If they make money more people can buy things, if there's more demand there's more production, which leads to more money and more spending and with all these extra workers it'd be more than easy to tax people a few sickles to pay for the goddamn Wolfsbane! It'd be good for the whole community and why don't we do it? Because people who believe other people who were bitten by a creature who couldn't control itself are diseased and don't help them control themselves when theycould be able to!" She exhaled sharply. "That's even worse than the Dementors."
"It's pretty rich of you, Anna, to condemn our dislike for half-breeds while you yourself are such a purist." Theo scoffed from beside her.
Anna turned to glare at him. "I'm not saying we should procreate with them, Nott, no more than we should with mudbloods. But there's a difference between wanting to keep your family line pure and depriving the wizarding community of much needed financial stability. Aren't we Slytherins?"She asked, looking around at them. At their nod she kept going. "Well then, we should use all that we have at our disposal, even if we don't think they are worth much."
They all stared at her for a while.
"I agree." Daphne said. "As the oldest daughter of one of the most prominent magical-artefact producer in the world I would prefer to use the cheapest workers to maximize our gain. What do I care if they're half-breeds as long as they get their work done properly? Some of them are probably even good at magic or whatever. As long as I'm not expected to marry one of them I'm fine. The Wolfsbane potion would be very useful as a health insurance to keep them working with us."
"See? Daphne is cunningly ambitious." Anna smirked, calming down a few notches. "What's the harm as long as they can be used?"
Suddenly the train came to a grinding halt, jolting them out of their seats. As they looked around the lights flickered off and freezing breeze swept through the train.
"What's going on?" Pansy stood, striding to the door and opening it.
Theo ran a hand over the window. "Ice. The temperature is dropping drastically." He looked around at them, paling.
"Get back in here." Anna grabbed Pansy's hand and dragged her back to her seat. "Colloportus." She whipped her wand at the door and it shut with a loud snap.
"What?" Greg was frowning, confused as ice started to rise over the glass of the door.
A small whimper escaped Draco's lips as they saw a tall dark figure pass the doors, but it didn't pay any mind to their compartment. Anna's blood chilled as she put a hand on Draco's shoulder protectively. He was shivering but she didn't say anything about it as sorrow started to swallow her. She clenched her eyes shut and sat next to Draco, still holding on to him. She couldn't perform a patronus; her magic was too tainted for it. She'd tried as soon as she'd found out about the dementors' placement at the school, but to no avail. She just was not able to, no matter how happy a thought she pulled up. It scared her that they would be surrounded by incredibly dangerous creatures and she wouldn't be able to protect herself or her cousin.
"Well?" Anna asked Draco as he trudged to her, followed by Greg, Vince and Pansy. "How was Divination?"
She was sitting on a bench with Theo, Daphne and Blaise, waiting for the others to show up to go to Care of Magical Creatures. She had decided she didn't need divination to know nothing good could come so she'd chosen Ancient Runes. None of them had been surprised that Granger had been the only Gryffindor to choose it. Anna really thought that the muggleborn was more Ravenclaw than Gryffindor but then again, she wasn't the Sorting Hat.
"Absolutely ridiculous. A complete farce and a waste of my time. I can't wait to drop it after fifth year." The blonde scoffed, coming closer to them.
"You should have chosen runes ." She said, taking his offered hand to stand and holding it as they walked off, their friends listening to their conversation. "At least you chose arithmancy."
"I hope I don't regret that one."
She shrugged. "Either way, we're going to be practicing defence tonight. Are any of you joining us?" She asked the others.
They looked a bit taken aback at the invitation. True, they were all friends, but they had never been invited to their 'training nights'. Draco and Anna, no matter what it may seem like, were always very close. They were the first real friends they had had and they were family. They looked out for each other and made sure they always had what was needed ready on time, like homework they didn't have time for and so on. Those were the moments they took to be just them and spend family time in private. If they hadn't known that they were cousins they –like the rest of the school, funnily enough would have assumed them to be in a sort of relationship. It was a natural conclusion if you looked to the fact that they were nearly always together (except when Anna had her 'there's trouble and I need to know what' moments) and were all around close in a physical way in public. To the others it was more than obvious she had feelings for Theo… except for Theo. He didn't see it. He saw many things around him and read people like books but he was insufferably dense when it came to himself.
"Sure… but why?" Blaise answered.
Draco shrugged. "We talked about it last night. With the dementors and a mass-murderer on the loose we all need to learn to defend ourselves. Anna and I are very good at it but you… haven't practiced as much."
They kept walking to Hagrid's hut, were they could already see the unnaturally large man waiting fort hem.
"Who's idea was it to have the oaf teach us? I'm sure your father didn't agree, Draco." Pansy muttered.
"He didn't even know about it... though the board of governors doesn't have much control over what kind of teachers are hired anyways. If they did he wouldn't have let Dumbledore hire Lupin either."
"Well… Lupin can't be any worse than Lockhart." Anna said. "If he is, I'll be surprised."
Hagrid led them into the forest through thin, dirty paths. The Gryffindors always wore those simple cloth shoes that were so in fashion with the muggles, so they weren't having such a hard time walking there. The Slytherins, on the other hand, grew increasingly frustrated as the boys' fancy leather shoes and the girls' pretty sandals with heels got dirty and muddy and stuck on things. What a vulgar place to walk around in. Daphne even had to hold on to Blaise for support as her heels sank through the mud.
"I think I might just quit this class." Pansy groaned from the back as they got to a clearing. "This is disgusting. Scourgify!" She pointed at her shoes and the mud disappeared. Her classmates did the same, much to the Gryffindors' annoyance. A little mud had never hurt anyone.
"Right, you lot! Less chattering o'er there and open your books to page fourty-nine." Hagrid called over to them as he walked around the clearing, whistling at the trees.
"And exactly how do we do that?" Draco demanded, holding up his Monster Book of Monsters which was fastened with a thick velvet belt to make sure it didn't escape and bite someone. Admittedly it had been fun to watch the shopkeeper struggle with them but reading from it was out of the question.
"Well just stroke the spine of course!" Hagrid said, as if stating the obvious. "Goodness me."
Draco raised an eyebrow, begrudgingly impressed as he stroked the thick spine and the book fell limp in his hands. Somewhere to the side, Longbottom was wrestling with his book which was trying to eat him. Bits of paper flew everywhere and the cloth of his clothes ripped as the book bit him with the strange little teeth it had on the rims.
"Don't be such a wimp, Longbottom." One of the Slytherins snapped at him as the other students settled their open books on large rocks and tree stumps.
"I'm okay... okay." Neville sighed in relief before crying out again as the book launched itself at his face.
"I think they're funny." Granger said, loud enough for the whole group to hear. The rest of the students turned to where she stood next to Potter and Weasley.
"Oh, yeah. Terribly funny. Really witty." Draco replied sarcastically and stepped towards her. "God, this place has gone to the dogs. Wait until my father hears that Dumbledore's got this oaf teaching classes."
The rest of the Slytherins snickered around him though Anna just rolled her eyes. There was no use to this.
"Shut up, Malfoy!" Potter snapped at her cousin and she couldn't help but fix him with a stare.
Not a glare, a stare. She had gotten past hating Potter to just being indifferent. He was as much a child of circumstance as Longbottom and her. In reality she couldn't blame him for anything, he just did what he needed to do to keep his friends safe, right? Just like her and her family. He was just way too... good. He was so good to people and tried to help everyone. It made her uncomfortable. It had made her feel uneasy around him since she'd started watching him this year, and she didn't even know why she watched him. Something about him just started to pull her attention and she couldn't help it.
She missed Draco mocking Potter about the Dementors, too sunken in her train of thought to register anything until a Hippogriff landed in front of them. It was large as a horse with silvery feathers over its whole body, including the huge wings that sprouted from its shoulder blades. It had a long tail with gray hair that reached its feet in the form of gold coloured eagle claws. They matched his beak that was large and sharp enough to cut through bone and coal black eyes stared at them warily.
"Isn't he beautiful?" Hagrid was saying. "Say hello to Buckbeak."
"Hagrid. What exactly is that?" Weasley asked.
"That, Ron, is a hippogriff." The huge man answered, patting Buckbeak on the back. "Firs' thing yeh wanna know abou' hippogriffs is that they're very proud creatures. Very easily offended. You do not want to insult a hippogriff. It may just be the las' thing yeh ever do. Now, who'd like ter come an' say hello?"
Stunned at the sudden escalation, all the students froze. It was completely silent for a second until Weasley pushed Potter forwards slightly. Draco snickered and pulled out an apple, biting into it while looking at Harry with glee. Anna sat down on a rock that was slightly less covered with moss with her open book on her lap, watching Potter walk forwards to the large animal. Hagrid guided him to bow, to step back when the Hippogriff got hissy and then ultimately to mount the Hippogriff and take off. Anna rolled her eyes as Draco made outraged noises and kept reading. Typical.
By the time Potter got back to the ground, half of the present Slytherins -mostly girls- had taken a seat like Anna. The Gryffindors cheered as the boy got off the Hippogriff but Draco stood up and was walking and talking before any of them could stop him from doing something incredibly stupid.
"Yes, you're not dangerous at all, are you, you great ugly brute-" He scoffed, walking straight to Buckbeak.
"Draco!" Anna called but he ignored her.
"Malfoy, Malfoy! No!" Hagrid reprimanded him but it was too late.
Buckbeak reared back, making infuriated noises, and scratched Draco on the arm, knocking him to the ground. Immediately Anna ran forwards, pushing Potter out of the way, in her distress not feeling the same zapping sensation that she felt. She kneeled by Draco as Hagrid tried to calm down the beast.
"Oh, it's killed me! It's killed me!" Draco was whimpering.
"Calm down." Anna hissed, trying to keep her hands from shaking as she ripped the ruined robes off him to check the wound. "It's just a scratch."
She pressed her wand to the wound hissing a numbing spell. Anna had never bothered with learning healing magic, that had been a mistake, obviously. She felt a presence beside her and she was shocked to find out it was Granger, looking on with concern. There was also confusion in her eyes as she realised Draco was holding on to Anna's wandless hand.
"Hagrid! He's got to be taken to the hospital." Hermione called out, shaking away the sight.
Hagrid stepped forwards, only hesitating slightly. "I'm the teacher. I'll do it." He said and picked up the blonde boy.
Anna glared at him protectively, but kept holding on to one of Draco's hands as she half ran to keep up with his large strides.
"You're going to regret this-" Draco groaned.
"Class dismissed!" Hagrid announced to the watching students, not that any of them had thought anything else.
"-You and your bloody chicken." draco finished before passing out.
Anna signalled her friends to go, to not wait for them, and at their nods she followed Hagrid again. She bit down the anger welling up. She was angry at Draco more than Hagrid; he had warned them that hippogriffs were dangerous. She was furious at Draco. How could he be so stupid? So reckless? Had his brain just stopped working?
More than angry, she was terrified.
Hermione watched -not even remotely impressed- as Draco let himself be cuddled by Parkinson in the Great Hall. Connors was right there!
How could no one notice that Malfoy was dating a muggleborn? It had started with their first year, when everyone just thought it was beyond weird that Malfoy didn't make the girl's life difficult. They were best friends from the beginning. Then he had started getting the people who insulted her into trouble and then someone had seen them hugging and holding hands and everyone assumed they were together. And the Slytherins didn't even mind! The Slytherin prince who called muggleborns mudbloods was dating one himself. Was being the key word here, apparently, since Connors was right next to him and neither seemed remotely interested in the fact that Parkinson had latched herself on Malfoy's arm.
Why had she held his hand then?
"Listen to the idiot. He's really laying it on thick, isn't he?" Ron muttered.
"Yeah, but at least Hagrid didn't get fired." Hermione was surprised that Harry didn't sound angry at Malfoy, just relieved.
"Yeah, but I hear Draco's father's furious. We haven't heard the end of this-"
At that moment Seamus' voice cut off their conversation. "He's been sighted! He's been sighted!"
"Who?"
"Sirius Black!" He exclaimed putting down the Daily Prophet and jabbing his finger down on the main article.
"Dufftown?" Hermione gasped as her eyes traveled down the paper. "That's not far from here."
"You don't think he'll come to Hogwarts... do you?" Neville asked worriedly.
"With the dementors at every entrance?"
"Dementors? He's already slipped by them once, hasn't he? Who's to say he can't do it again?"Seamus shook his head.
"That's right. Black could be anywhere. It's like trying to catch smoke. Like trying to catch smoke through your bare hands."
Hermione scowled. "We should get to DADA." She said, pulling Harry and Ron away.
The rest of the fourth year Gryffindors followed, still whispering about Black as they travelled up a few flights of stairs to professor Lupin's classroom. The door was open and the room was filled with light as they stepped in. All the desks had been moved to the side of the classroom and a large wardrobe stood on the far end of the room, where the teacher's desk usually sat. The wardrobe vibrated a little when Lupin stood in front of it.
"Welcome!" He said, amber eyes glinting in the sunlight. "All of you stand here in the middle while we wait for the Slytherins. Put your bags and books away and take out your wands."
Then he sat down on one of the desks next to a phonograph a took out a small book, which he started reading as he waited.
Not long after the Slytherins arrived, the silver of their house emblems glittering in the sudden light as they joined their classmates, still looking around surprised at the sudden change of furnishing. Hermione noticed that Malfoy and his gang -Crabbe, Goyle, Parkinson and Connors- stood to the back, close to them stood Nott and Greengrass and a few feet away stood Zabini. She always had the feeling that they were better friends than they let on, though she rarely saw them interact with each other, they varely even acknowledged each other's existence. She guessed they weren't in the house of the cunning for nothing.
Lupin stood and stepped next to the wardrobe. It shook brusquely.
"Intriguing, isn't it? Would anyone like to venture a guess... as to what is inside?" He asked.
"That's a Boggart, that is." Dean answered him.
"Very good, Mr. Thomas. Now, can anybody tell me what a Boggart looks like?"
"No one knows." Hermione said. "Boggarts are shape-shifters. They take the shape of whatever a particular person fears the most. That's what makes them so -"
"- so terrifying, yes." Lupin finished. "Luckily, a very simple charm exists to repel a Boggart. Let's practice it now. Ah, without wands, please... after me... Ridikkulus!"
"Ridikkulus." The class chanted with him.
"Very good. A little louder, and very clear. Listen: Ridikkulus!" He motioned for them to say it.
"Ridikkulus!" The class repeated.
"This class is ridiculous." Hermione heard Malfoy mutter, though she saw Connors squeeze his non injured arm.
"Very good." Professor Lupin continued, ignoring Malfoy completely. "Well, so much for the easy part. You see, the incantation alone is not enough. What really finishes a Boggart is... laughter. You need to force it to assume a shape you find truly amusing. Let me explain. Ah- Neville, would you join me, please? Come on. Don't be shy, come on. Come on." He waved the boy over.
Poor Neville was shaking as he stepped forwards nervously.
"Hello. Neville, what frightens you most of all?" Lupin asked kindly.
"Profter... S- Snafpt..." He mumbled under his breath.
"Sorry?"
"Professor Snape." He said a bit louder.
Small giggles filled the silence until professor Lupin raised a hand, silencing them. "Professor Snape. Yes, frightens us all. And I believe you live with your grandmother?"
"Yes, but I don't want that Boggart to turn into her, either."
"No...It won't. I want you to picture her clothes, only her clothes, very clearly in your mind."
"She carries a red handbag..." Neville started nervously, frowning as he thought.
"We don't need to hear it. As long as you see it, we'll see it. Now, when I open that wardrobe, here's what I want you to do... Excuse me..." He whispered something into the boy's ear. "Can you do that?"
Neville nodded.
"Wand at the ready. One. Two. Three." He flicked his wand at the wardrobe and it swung open.
The insides were dark and Neville shook as he strained his eyes. Pale hands wrapped themselves around the edges and Snape's head emerged from the shadows, eternal scowl ever present. His dark eyes were fixed on Neville as he walked forwards, crossing his arms in contempt.
"Think, Neville. Think!" Lupin encouraged him.
Neville raised his wand and with a small voice said: "Ridikkulus!"
Professor Snape's dark robes turned to a hideous green dress lined with fur. In one of his hands he clutched a shiny red leather handbag and a huge hat with a stuffed falcon on top of it.
Laughter erupted in the room.
Lupin laughed too as he stepped forwards to clap Neville on the back. "Wonderful, Neville, wonderful! Incredible! Okay! To the back, Neville." He waved the whole class forwards "Everyone form a line. Form a line. I want everyone to picture the thing they fear the very most, and turn it into something funny. Next! Ron! Concentrate. Face your fear. Be brave!"
In the corner of her eyes, Hermione saw Connors go to stand at the absolute back of the line.
Anna walked in the Forbidden Forrest, alone. She had escaped the castle after midday, shaking off Draco in order to be alone for a while. It was absolutely asphyxiating. Her friends were around her all the time, if it wasn't Draco it was Theo or Pansy or Daphne and she was sick of it. She needed to think.
She was a horcrux now, and she didn't want to think about the consequences. She just needed to know... if it was her. Was it her that moved forwards to absorb it, or was it her magic moving her? Were her thoughts her own, or did the dark magic influence her thoughts without her knowing. Would it change who she was? But who was she? She had never lived without the dark magic inside her so wasn't it just as much a part of her as her own magic? And did that mean that whatever the magic made her do was actually just her own mind doing it?
Her head was starting to hurt. A loud groan escaped her and she let herself drop to the ground on a small bit of land by the edge of the lake. She didn't care that her legs and robes got dirty and that there was mud on her shoes. The one who cared about that was... Annabelle. Right? Was she Annabelle, the fancy, bloodpurist heir, or was she Anna, the smart, bitter orphan girl? Could she be both? They were so different though... She liked being Annabelle, but she also didn't. She liked having a family and being admired and being powerful, but she hated the fact that she couldn't be that without being a Death Eater because... as much as she might be a purist, as much as she hates muggles and accept that her parents are torturers and is more than willing to torture the ones who hurt her loved ones... she wasn't cruel. She wasn't, was she? Or was Annabelle cruel and Anna just slightly mean?
She also didn't want to be Anna. Anna was simple and had a simple life and she was much more... free. But Anna was alone and she was nobody and... she didn't know anything about being forced to do things.
A rustling knocked her out of her thoughts and in a second her wand was pointed at a large bush to the side. Her heart beat thunderously as she waited for whatever it was to appear. The seconds ticked by until a large dog's head popped out between the leaves. Soon after the rest of the dog followed and stepped wearily towards her. It was huge and black, its hair was dirty and matted and she could see the ribs in his chest. The poor animal seemed half starved to death.
"Hello there." She said, putting her wand away. She extended her hand towards it. "Here boy."
The dog bounded over and she stroked its head, running her finger through the tangled nots in its fur. Grime stuck to her hand but she didn't mind as the dog sat down next to her and wagged its tail happily at the caresses.
"Can I talk to you?" She asked, smiling slightly when the dog's eyes turned to her at the sound of her voice. "Can you keep a secret?"
The dog barked.
Anna laughed. "It's almost like you can understand me but... I'm going to trust you. See this emblem?" She tugged at the Slytheirn crest and the dog snuffled at it. "It means I'm in Slytherin House, it means I'm sneaky and ambitious and that I don't easily trust people because I know that people usually have ulterior motives. But You won't betray me, will you?"
The dog whined.
"Thank you."
And she told him everything. From her life at the orphanage, to coming here and finding out about her family.
"I don't want to lose them. I'll do anything that's necessary because... you know how Slytherins use all they need to use to get what they want? I want my family to be safe and happy. That's my ambition."
Then she told him about her Anna/Annabelle problem.
When she finished the sun was setting, she could see the deep orange reflection on the lake's surface. Her fingers were still entwined in the dog's mane and it had laid down with its head on her lap. It was whining, hadn't stopped whining since she had told him about her life in the orphanage. Whined even more when she told him her 'actual' name. She didn't want to dwell on it. She was calm now, she had talked to someone without even thinking about it, even if it was a dog. She had needed this and, sitting here quietly by the lake, with nothing to worry about, nothing to do, at peace, she wished she could stay forever.
Her eyes trailed down to the dog. It was looking up at her with large grey eyes.
"I have two names, but you don't have one." She mused.
The dog buried its nose in her hand and stomach. It snuffled quietly at her clothes as if trying to reassure her that it was fine. But it wasn't. The dog was her new friend and her friends needed names.
"How about Snuffles?" She asked.
The dog barked and wagged its tail. She could swear it was smiling.