Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/
works/8632372.
  Rating:
      Explicit
  Archive Warning:
      Graphic_Depictions_Of_Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
  Category:
      F/M
  Fandom:
      Harry_Potter_-_J._K._Rowling
  Relationship:
      Severus_Snape/Original_Character(s), Sirius_Black/Original_Character(s),
      Original_Character/Original_Character/Original_Character
  Character:
      Original_Characters, Severus_Snape, Sirius_Black, Albus_Dumbledore, Fred
      Weasley, George_Weasley, Rubeus_Hagrid
  Additional Tags:
      Romance, Mystery, Dark, Humor, Friendship, Love, Alternate_Universe
  Stats:
      Published: 2016-11-23 Updated: 2016-11-29 Chapters: 5/? Words: 22424
****** Parables and Primes ******
by AvaOkima
Summary
     Anna Henrietta is part of a secret and independently run intelligence
     agency. Her life and position has been hard won, as the other members
     have judged her by her mother's sins. But when at last she is
     accepted fully into their ranks, a strange man turns up to tell her
     she's a witch, and she once again finds herself on unstable ground.
     Anna finds her new life at Hogwarts, with friends and safety and time
     for childish fun, a welcoming change. But the good times are soon
     disrupted by shadows from her past and new enemies made along the
     way.
     Can she find balance in herself and her surroundings? And who will
     she be by the end of it all?
Notes
     This story spans the pre- to post-hogwarts eras. The rating and
     warnings are to be safe, but I've no intention of over-indulging in
     dark or sexual themes, and anything explicit will not be detailed
     until Anna is old enough.
     The minuscule planning I've done for this story tells me it will be
     pretty long; At least 300k words and probably in several parts. The
     main ship will be Severus/OC, but it'll take a while to get there,
     and Anna will have had several other romances by that time.
     I'll try to stay as true to the canon and the characters as I can,
     and I hope you'll find I do them justice. Please, let me know what
     you think, be it good or bad, and enjoy!
***** The Practical Joke *****
                              The practical joke

A scruffy, young barn owl was sleeping perched on one of the posts of the bed
standing in a corner of the large room. On the hard mattress, her bare feet on
the cold, concrete floor, sat Anna. A lock of curly, black hair tickled her
slender jawline as the late summer air found it’s way through a hole in one of
the large windows along the south side of the former factory building where she
was currently stationed. Shards of glass lay scattered about the floor, some
trailing a path revealing the culprit responsible for breaking the window; a
medium sized rock. Torn by wind and weather from the factories own decaying
shell and promptly thrown back at it by what Anna could only assume was yet
another gang of noisy brats this part of town seemed so full of. Anna wasn’t a
person to leave a mess if she could help it, and certainly not a dangerous one,
but she also was one to make the most out of what time she had and last night
sleep had gained precedence over housekeeping. Now however, well rested and
once again fit for fight, she could no longer postpone it. But she did not
rise. And the reason for this hesitation, which was very much unlike her, was
to be found in her right hand. Between long fingers she held a letter; lazily
scraping the yellowed parchment with a short, but well-kempt fingernail.
An owl had come with it just after midnight on January 1st, her birthday. This
had caused quite the ruckus within the chapter. The fact that the letter
arrived by owl raised a few eyebrows, but nothing compared to the reaction upon
seeing what was written on the envelope; an address, specifying Anna’s exact
location. It was this, and not the letters strange announcement of her
acceptance into some school for witchcraft and wizardry, that caused the
commotion.
At first she had thought it a joke and marched on Mathias’ chamber demanding an
explanation, he was after all the first in line as a suspect whenever a joke
was played on her, but he had brushed her off saying he, for once, had nothing
to do with it, and then laughed at her when she’d pressed the letter in his
face, demanding he read it. However, after seeing the way it had been addressed
and heard how it had been delivered, a wrinkle appeared in the space between
his brows that Anna recognized as thoughtful concern.
They’d gone to Florean, the chapter master, to alert him their position may
have been compromised. Florean indeed shared Mathias’ concern and ordered the
matter investigated at once and plans to be laid for relocation as soon as
possible. Anna thought it all much to big a fuss over something that was
clearly only a practical joke by one of her brethren, but couldn’t deny that
was this not the case the situation may put them all in grave danger and so
understood her masters wish for precaution.
The same night they sent the owl on it’s way again with a tracker tied to it’s
foot in hope it might reveal the letters origin. None really expected anything
to come of it as it was an obvious response, but lacking anything to go on
besides the weird contents of the letter, that their code crackers had yet to
make any progress on, they had to try.
Indeed the tracker did not offer them a specific location, but not because
there was not anything to be found where it had landed, but because the tracker
had ceased to work before the owl had reached it’s destination. A unit was
dispatched to the last know location of the owl, a rundown warehouse, not too
far away, used to store old models of baby-strollers that had gone out of
fashion and was to be redistributed to some charity or the other. But besides a
ghoulish stroller with wheels fit for a monster truck and trashy flames licking
the sides of the basket where the poor baby would lie, nothing of note was to
be found.
At breakfast Sid, one of the agents dispatched to the warehouse, told them
about the dotty, old landlord who’d practically shoved them into the warehouse
in his excitement to show them around.
“The way he talked about those blasted wheelers you’d think he was sitting on
technology from outer space!” he said and gained a bout of snickering from
those around him. “And his clothes! Well, it would not be too far-fetched to
assume he himself was not entirely of this world.”
At this the others laughed, Anna too, for she could vividly picture the man in
her mind.
The mood soon died down though as Florean entered and asked Anna and Mathias to
join him in his quarters. He told them they had to move Anna to a safehouse, a
location only to be known by the three of them. And that Mathias, as her mentor
and guardian, would be her sole companion. Not that Florean distrusted his
other men and women, but seeing as Anna, for now, seemed to be the only target
of whatever this was she’d best be kept safe and away from the others.
They set out that same night, she and Mathias, to the address given them by
Florean. Their departure was not announced, but surely the others had guessed
what was going on as soon as they’d not rejoined them to finish their meal.
Upon arriving at the safehouse, which turned out to be an abandoned cottage on
the outskirts of the city where no one seemed to have lived for at least ten
years judging by the overgrown garden, dusty windows and roof seemingly ready
to cave at any given moment, they were both thoroughly exhausted. After
checking that all was in order and the alarms in place and active, they headed
straight to bed. Or rather, Anna curled up on the sofa and Mathias put together
two ragged armchairs and made a makeshift bed on which he miraculously fell
asleep almost instantly, but not before turning to face Anna and with drowsy
eyes and a warm smile mutter:
“Happy birthday, kid.”
===============================================================================
 
They were not allowed to rest for long though. A meager four hours after
settling down they were awoken by a loud banging noise they soon thereafter
discovered to be an abnormally large, and fat, owl pecking angrily on the
window beside the door. In it’s beak, a letter.
“What the hell...” Mathias slurred, rubbing his eyes and slapping himself as if
to confirm he was actually fully awake and not still dreaming.
“Let it in,” said Anna. “if it’s found us here, what harm could it do? Besides,
I think you’ve taken this joke far enough now. Your diligence is admirable, but
I doubt Florean, or the others you’ve kept awake all night for that matter,
will be much amused.”
At this Mathias whirled around to face her and yelled:
“I’m bloody aware of that, kid, you think I’d be stupid enough to pull this
sort of thing?”
Anna mentally rolled her eyes, but was indeed quite sure he wouldn’t take a
joke this far and let him have at it.
“Once, yes! Once it might’a been funny, but not fucking…”
Agents may be expected to respond at a moments notice even when asleep, but
years of training obviously didn’t stop her mentor being seriously sour when
robbed of his much needed beauty sleep. It was one of the traits, had he
actually been her father, she could swear she’d inherited from him. And
normally she’d be just as grumpy and respond in kind, but as it was she was so
occupied with the bird and the letter she barely heard him and went to let it
in.
“It might ‘ave been that blasted Sonya,” Mathias raved on. “she’s not known to
give much thought to consequence that one, only she doesn’t have a damn clue
we’re here!”
Anna disarmed the alarm and unfastened the locks on the window and stepped
aside to let bird pass. It flew in and landed itself on the back of one of the
chairs Mathias had used for a bed, flapping the man right in the face with one
of it’s massive wings in the process, gaining a string of curse words before he
took up again his ranting.
“I may even have suspected Florean himself had it not been for the fact he has
not one amusing bone in his body!”
Anna wanted to comment there were no such thing as ‘amusing bones’, but kept
from it and went to relieve the bloated creature of it’s message.
Not much could surprise Anna, but this did the trick. At seeing her eyes widen
and her mouth fall open, Mathias stopped his tirade and was by her side in two
long strides. There was probably as much that would surprise Anna, as there
were things who’d render Mathias speechless, but here it was, resting firmly in
her hand, the object that had managed both.
Anna Henrietta
The sofa
Abandoned cottage, left side of the road. Not the yellow one.
Holloway road
London
===============================================================================
 
The chapter was in an uproar. Not one agent sat still on their hands, everyone
pulling their weight to try and figure out something about this mystery man or
woman sending letters to Anna. Some even thought an entire organization was
behind it. One of their old rivals or an entirely new participant; the latter
being the most popular theory as the nature of this persecution was highly
unusual. Both Anna and Mathias were subjected to thorough medical inspection to
determine whether a trace could have been put on or into either of them seeing
as only they and Florean knew about their whereabouts. The inspection had
yielded no results though, causing all the other members to be questioned and
investigated on their whereabouts during the night, and their personal quarters
searched for technology that could be used to transmit messages to a third
party, this too revealing nothing. Everyone had been where they were supposed
to, having no time to follow the duo or anything else, save perhaps discretely
open a window and toss out a message for someone below. This last theory making
everyone uncomfortable and keeping an extra sharp eye on each other.
As the hours passed and no advances were made Florean grew increasingly
distressed. He’d even given Anna and Mathias an earful, threatening to have
them placed in a program for re-assessment and re-training, for letting
themselves be followed. Having exhausted any other possibility, save treachery,
negligence was the only plausible explanation left, even though Florean knew
them to be amongst his best and brightest. They knew they would never be sent
away, still it was an uncomfortable prospect. From what Anna had heard about
these programs they were designed to break down and rebuild, something that
would require extreme force and constant psychological torment as an agent is
trained from birth not to give in in the event they are captured and put
through interrogation, making them exceedingly hardy. She of course did not
give much credit to rumor, yet still could not shake a vexatious feeling in her
gut as they made for the door.
Mathias however did not seem to share in her worries as he was far to occupied
expressing his dislike of Florean.
“How that overbearing dunce came to be chapter master is beyond me.” He
grumbled while scratching his beard. I mean, he’s brilliant obviously, but so
are we and most of the others here, only we’ve got the stones to deal with this
sort of situation without loosing our bloody cool!”
Anna was of the same mind but saw her chance to jab at her guardian and
reminded him who’d kept their calm and who’d lost their head when, back at the
cottage, the owl had, literally, come knocking.
Mathias didn’t appreciate her nerve and promptly went to get a bite to eat.
Anna, though, wasn’t hungry and went to check in with the code breakers, not so
much to see if there had been any progress, she was quite certain there hadn’t,
as to read the letters once more.
The one delivered by the fat owl had been identical to her first one except for
a little side-note, scribbled in a exceptionally swirly handwriting that almost
needed decoding of it’s own. It read:
Dear, miss Henrietta.
We received back the owl, but no letter with it. Instead there was a curious
little device attached to its leg our experts on muggle artifacts reckon to be
a voice transmission apparatus. Please note that muggle technology often cease
to work in places of magic and we therefore kindly ask you to resend your
answer in the form of a written letter.
Yours sincerely,
Albus Dumbledore
Headmaster
This letter was the reason Anna was amongst thoseless rattled by the goings on
of the last 20 hours. She could not for the life of her see this as anything
but a joke. Voice transmission apparatus? Experts on muggle artifacts? What
even was a muggle anyways? And the names signed on the letters; Minerva
McGonagall on the letters themselves and then this Albus Dumbledore on the note
enclosed with the second letter, they were quite outlandish. Not to mention the
school she had apparently been accepted at; Hogwarts school for witchcraft and
wizardry? No, it was all too much, it really was. Ridiculous didn’t even cover
it. She’d have shrugged it off had it been a letter left on her bed or
somewhere else easily accessible. But the amount of effort put into this was
astounding, the one thing that left room for doubt in her mind about the joke-
theory. That and a feeling in her gut. Her intuition. It was something she had
learned not to ever ignore since it had never been proved wrong. She might
sometimes have misinterpreted it, as was the case last year when she’d had a
strange feeling about her place in the chapter. She’d thought she was about to
be transferred, moved away for being difficult or disliked, but when the time
came she’d been promoted. Or told she was going to be. She’d been hand picked
for grooming of grand master. Or grand mistress in her case. Meaning she might
one day find herself in charge of the entire organization, spanning every
country on the entire globe. It was a huge position, and a very long way from
what she had expected. Her gut had told her about a change, but seeing as she
had always been the punching bag and scapegoat everywhere she went, she’d never
even lent a thought to the possibility of something good happening.
The rule within the order was that you were born into it or not at all. Meaning
both your parents had to be from within it. It was an ancient tradition, and
ill-thought out as incest and inbreeding was a very real risk. There were of
course rules and a system in place to prevent this. If two people with too
little genetic diversity paired up they were not allowed to have children. The
women of the order were also obligated to bear children with a suitable match
at least once unless medically unfit to do so. From the outside looking in this
practice would seem barbaric, and perhaps it was, but as this was, and had
always been, the norm, nobody really minded. And there were usually loopholes.
Anna was certain that if the time came and she did not wish to have children,
nobody would force her to. Florean would surely arrange something and she
wouldn’t have to. But she, as most any other women in the order, was prepared
to play her part, whatever that entailed.
Her mother however was a different story. A formidable woman and agent. Anna’d
been told her mother had herself been chosen for the grooming, but rejected
when she’d taken up with an outsider. The man that would become Anna’s father.
Her mother was a topic to be avoid around the order. She’d learned that the
hard way. Any time she had tried to ask about her she’d been verbally shut up
and beaten down, and not so rarely physically as well. From the little she had
been told, after meeting Anna’s father her mother had lost all interest in the
order. She’d neglected her duties and stood up her brethren, once even
resulting in an agents death. After that she had been locked up. Anna was told
she had gone mad. Banging and clawing at the door of her cell. Attacking guards
and eventually even hurting herself, resulting in her being tied up as well. At
this time she was far into her pregnancy, this being the only reason she was
not 'put down'.
One of the functions of the order was assassination, but as commonplace death
was the murder of a child, even an unborn one, was heavily condemned. And so
her mother had carried her to term and died as she gave birth.
Normally Anna would have been left on the doorstep of an orphanage, but for the
first of what would come to be a whole series Mathias came to her rescue. He
had been a dear friend of her mother. He’d never said so, but Anna understood
he had loved her deeply and would have done anything for her. She even
suspected he had been her chosen companion before she met Anna’s actual father.
Mathias had refused to let her go. Refused to toss her out into the world, and
by way of persistence and hard work he managed to sway the system. To have Anna
stay within the order, with him. He’d taken on full responsibility of her and
her training. But for all that he tried, Anna’s presence did not go over well
with the other members. She was the daughter of a traitor and an outsider,
they’d be hard pressed to accept her as one of their own.
Mathias had tried his best to shield her, but he could only do so much without
slacking from his duties, and so most of the time, Anna was left her to her own
devices.
She’d be beaten for the smallest mishaps and castigated for no reason at all.
If she was not tormented, she was ignored. Anna reckoned the only reason she’d
turned out okay was because of Mathias. He’d been strict with her, yes, and
often teased her into anger, but he had never been purposefully unkind. No,
quite the contrary, she’d found solace in his teasing and barking orders. She’d
no idea of what the real thing was like, but he was her idea of a father. A
person to steer and guide her, while at the same time playing with her and
patching her up and comforting her when it was all to much to bear. He would
come to her room and sit with her into the wee hours and tell her stories from
his life and fascinating tales he’d happened upon during his 30 years of
living. And he never said an unfeeling word of her mother.
“Diana was a great woman, and the best goddamn agent you could imagine. She
would have made it to grand mistress for sure had she not met that savage son-
of-a-bitch”
He’d all but spat that last part. It hadn’t taken Anna long to work out
Mathias’ less-than-chummy feelings towards her father. He even went as far as
to claim she’d not chosen him of her own free will.
“He poisoned her mind, the bastard. My Diana would never have chosen such a
man. Base vile and disgusting, he was.”
Anna wasn’t sure if it was true what Mathias was telling her or if it was spite
born of jealousy and heartbreak, but she never challenged him, her intuition
telling her not to.
“She changed you know. What they’re saying about her is true, albeit minus the
coarse language. She really did stop caring. All that mattered to her was
getting back to that viper time and again. She’d become her exact opposite. I
don’t believe anyone could cause such a drastic change in a person like Diana
without resorting to dirty methods. I’ve no idea what he did to her, but if I
ever lay eyes on the bastard again, I’ll kill him.”
Those last words had been so angry and spiteful Anna had to keep herself from
cowering. Luckily Mathias noticed this and from then on made it a point to
avoid the topic of her father.
Anna was jerked back to reality by a scratchy voice dangerously close to her
ear.
“Would you look at that, the great Anna Henrietta being a liability yet again.”
The voice belonged to Khadir, a skinny and rather nasty looking boy. He was
really 26, but he would never come to be anything but a boy in Anna’s mind
until his voice stopped cracking and the pimples disappeared from his face.
Where most others had come off her case and even started treating her as one of
their own, Khadir had soured even more. He no longer beat her since she had
learned to beat back by now, and proved quite skilled at it at that, and
Khadir, while quite dim, was at least smart enough to understand getting beat
up by an 11 year old would rage havoc on his reputation. What he didn’t realize
was his reputation really couldn’t be much worse, but he seemed to think
picking on Anna was the way to remedy it. Quite dim indeed.
“You know me, sweatcheeks, always enjoy causing a fuss.” She replied in the
most monotonous voice she could muster.
She’d no intention of egging on a fight, so she humored him. However she
couldn’t resist sneaking in a little insult as she did.
“Watch your mouth, you mongrel bitch. I’m higher ranking than you, you’ll want
to remember that.”
‘Oh I will’ she thought. It had not yet been made official she’d been chosen
for the grooming, but the thought of seeing Khadir’s face when it was made her
near squirm with excitement.
She slipped silently back into her thoughts, intending to ignore the guy until
he tired and left her alone. Alas, no such luck, for his next words caught her
attention indeed.
“Anyways, I’m not here to remind you you’re less than me, ‘cause that goes
without saying, but to tell you you’re in deep shit this time.”
A nasty grin spread across his face and she could swear one of the pimples
around his mouth popped. She prayed to god the gook hadn’t landed on her,
Khadir’s body odor was enough to want to keep him at arms length, the thought
of his pimple juice befouling her made her want to throw up. And as if god had
gotten out on the wrong side of bed that morning the next words out of Khadir’s
mouth was accompanied by a generous amount of spit.
“There’s a guy here from up top, demanding to see you. He doesn’t look to be in
a good mood so I reckon he’s here to take you away. Lock you up like that
whore-mother of yours.”
Anna was seconds away from rearranging his face, but thought better of it. If
there really was a high ranking agent here for her, and in a foul mood at that,
it’d be mighty dumb to show herself at her worst. So she drew a breath to
steady herself and retorted:
“Excuse me, I have to report to Florean another owl’s paid me a visit. Though
this one’s only squawking and stinking up the place, I’d recommend we swiftly
send it out the window.”
She flashed him a swank smile and walked off before giving him a chance to
think out a reply. As she closed the door she could hear him yelling something
after her, but promptly shut it so as to cut him off.
She’d once suggested to him his parents may have been a bit too closely
related, but he had insisted his lineage was very diverse. She’d left it alone
then, but had her doubts. She tried not feed her confidence with superiority,
but it was so hard with people like Khadir around making it so easy for her.
She felt right dapper as she walked towards Florean’s quarters, willing herself
not to worry, Khadir was after all not very reliable where she was concerned.
Though not very anxious she couldn’t help feeling vigilant and wonder what a
high-ranking agent could possibly want with her.
***** A Battle of Inquiry *****
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
                              A Battle of Inquiry

As she reached the door of her destination she hesitated. Hearing angry voices
inside she leaned against the door to try and work out what was being said. The
metal was not very thick, but enough for Anna to miss parts of the exchange.
“Tell me! … my agent… in my chapter… I’ve a right to know!” Albeit muffled, she
recognized the voice as Florean’s.
“…wrong. …follow orders… just… belongs… the order.” The second voice she’d
never heard before and guessed this to be the agent Khadir had talked about.
His voice was much calmer and also lower, making it harder to discern what he
was saying, but it clearly didn’t make Florean happy. He got into a huff, but
was quickly calmed by a third voice Anna recognized instantly as Mathias’. His
carrying clearer that the both of them.
“…not rip each others throats… just yet… speak to her first.”
She felt the argument coming to an end and knocked on the door so as not to be
caught eavesdropping.
Inside, silence fell at once and moments later a big, bearded face greeted her.
“You’re late” Mathias said with a frown.
“Late? I only just got the message.” She retorted with a raised brow, but
quickly put two and two together.
Khadir had been the messenger after all. Mathias seemed to have drawn the same
conclusion and muttered under his breath as he stepped aside to let her in. She
lost most of it, but were able to make out “blasted” and “Khadick”, the last
making her snort in a rather unseemly fashion. Luckily, it seemed the other two
did not notice. Or rather, other three, for in the corner of the room sat a
third figure that had kept silent during what she had been able to make out of
the argument. He wore funny clothes, half-moon spectacles on his nose that was
abnormally long and looked like it had been broken at least once. His beard,
long and white, cascaded down the front of his lime-green robes and came to a
rest at his knees. His boots were the color of rich mahogany and so pointy Anna
wondered whether they could do serious damage if directed at anyone's shin. He
sat in a rater relaxed manner, an amused glint in his eyes as he locked his
gaze unto Anna’s; as if to say ‘these guys, am I right?’. Though he looked like
he’d have worded it in a much more shrouded and fleeting manner.
“Ah, Anna, good, you’re here. This is…” Florean started and gestured towards
the unknown agent, but was interrupted by the strange man as he rose and walked
over to where Anna stood as rooted to the ground.
It took her a full two seconds to regain her composure, long enough for the
bespeckled stranger to reach her and put a hand on her shoulder, turning to the
others.

“Thank you, gentlemen, for your hospitality as we waited, but the young woman
in question is here at last and I would like a word in private.”
The mans voice was gentle, but firm, and Anna got the strangest notion. She
felt safe in his presence, but yet also like she had to be careful, watch
herself.
“Out of the question!” Florean hissed. “She’s my…”
But stopped mid sentence as the stranger pierced him with a stare that seemed
to render him unable to speak.
“I understand your wariness, but I assure you no harm will come to the girl. I
only wish to speak with her on a matter important to her future. Surely you
understand.”
His voice was mesmerizing. Even Anna, who had not spoken to begin with, felt
the need to shut up.
The stranger smiled and gestured to the door while at the same time leading
Anna to the chairs at the back of the room where he had previously been
sitting. The unknown agent grabbed Florean lightly by the arm and motioned him
out. As they left Mathias held his ground and fixed the stranger with a
suspicious look.
The man started to say something, but this time it was Anna’s turn to interrupt
and finally making her voice heard.
“It’s fine, Mathias. You can leave us.”
She met his eyes and gave a slight nod as if to signal she trusted the man
would only talk to her. Mathias lingered a little longer, but ultimately gave
in and turned to leave. He knew her and trusted her instincts. That she would
not willingly be left alone with a strange man unless she was sure it would
indeed be fine. As the door shut behind him she turned to meet the gaze of the
man behind the half-moon spectacles.
Silence fell for a little while while she took in the man in front of her.
Usually Anna was able to make up her mind about someone rather quickly. She
needed only look at the person in question to get some sort of idea what they
were like, but reading the strange man was like walking around a labyrinth with
only dead ends. All she had to go on was the strange notion from earlier and
she didn’t know what to make of it as it was contradictory. One part told her
to trust him, the other to be wary.
She realized the other was fixing her with an equally intense survey. This
battle of inquiry lasted for about five seconds before the stranger finally
broke the silence.
“You must wonder why you find yourself alone in a room with a strange man you
know nothing about?” He said humorously as he locked her with another searching
look.
“It struck my mind, of course, but I was really rather wondering when last you
cut you beard.” She said matter-of-factly and smiled ever so slightly as if to
challenge him to make another attempt at reading her mind.
At this he made a hearty chuckle.
“I believe it was the summer of 69, but I cannot be sure.”
The lyrics of the Bryan Adams song popped into her mind instantly and she
fought an urge to hum the melody. He smiled knowingly at her and gave a slight
wink and she averted her eyes in defeat.
“Anyways, back to the matter at hand. Do you know why I’m here?” He asked. This
time challenging her to read his mind.
“No,” she replied in honest. “But might it have something to do with the
strange letters?”
A thought suddenly struck her mind out of nowhere and she blurted it out
without thinking.
“Are you Albus Dumbledore?”
She felt stupid even as the last syllable rolled off her tongue, but it was too
late now and she willed her face into a neutral expression.
“I see nothing escapes your attention, Miss Henrietta.”
It sounded like a compliment, but Anna wasn’t ready to accept it just yet.
“Are you?” She pressed on, hoping she wasn’t making a fool of herself.
“Yes.” He answered shortly, not offering any more information about himself.
“Call me Anna, by the way.” She corrected him. “Nobody calls me Henrietta. Only
Anna or sometimes Anna Henrietta to be formal.”
She’d occasionally go by ‘Annarietta’ as well, but only Mathias ever called her
that, and even then only as a lovesome nickname when they were alone. In fact
he’d mostly used it when she was a child. As the years had gone by ‘Annarietta’
had slowly been reduced to ‘Anna’ or ‘kid’. A part of her somewhat missed the
old nickname. It reminded her of venerability and comfort, feelings that had
become scarce as of late. And though she had never really had the chance to be
a child, the realization she never would be given that chance either made her
heart sink.
She realized the stranger, or Dumbledore as he had now revealed himself, hadn’t
answered and was once again looking meticulously at her. Feeling as if he could
indeed read her mind she slammed her walls back up and continued talking.
“What about McGonagall?” She asked. “Your signature was on the note, but hers
was on the letters. If you’re here to reveal the purpose of this sham,
shouldn’t she be here to?”
Anna was becoming uncomfortable, grasping for the upper hand as she felt her
position weaken. She knew telepathy wasn’t actually a thing, but by the way he
looked at her she couldn’t shake the feeling he was peeling her mind like an
onion. Perhaps there was something to it? Some new technology? It would
certainly explain how he’d known her location both times and why her intuition
was flaring up like crazy, telling her to be wary. But then why didn’t she feel
threatened? Surely someone with this kind of power was not someone she could
rely on or feel safe with.
Dumbledore averted his eyes and took an interest in the nutcracker lying beside
a bowl full of walnuts on the table. Ignoring her question, he picked it up and
studied it intently.
“Curious device. What is it for?” He asked.
“It’s a nutcracker.” Anna stated bluntly, not opting to let him change the
subject.
Still, he kept on inspecting the contraption.
“How do you use it?” He asked with wonder in his voice, but Anna didn’t bite.
She continued staring him down, her face blank, waiting for him to answer her
question. Finally he put the nutcracker down and lifted his eyes to hers again.
“Oh no, Minerva is far to busy with her classes. I thought it best to take care
of this myself and scratch one thing of her list of worries.”
Anna didn’t see the point in keeping up the ruse, but decided to humor him.
Figuring that to be the best strategy to gain some information.
“Shouldn’t your own list of worries be more considerable? If I remember
correctly, you are the headmaster.”
She loaded the last part with heavy sarcasm to let him know he’d have to try
harder if he had any hope to fool her.
“Perhaps, but at Hogwarts the teachers have always shouldered the heaviest
burdens, I’m ashamed to say. Mayhaps this be a point of improvement in the
future, but for now I believe we have another matter to attend to.”
Anna sensed the conversation finally going somewhere and jumped on the
opportunity.
“Enlighten me.” She said, leaning back in her chair, hoping for answers at
last.
“As you know you have been accepted at our school, and what I want to know is;
will you be attending?”
Anna was starting to get properly annoyed. He really was dead set on dragging
this out wasn’t he?
“I haven’t applied for a place at any school. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m
already occupied.”
“You needn’t apply for Hogwarts the way you would a normal school in the muggle
world. When born a witch or a wizard you’re listed forthwith and will be
offered, at an appropriate time, to enroll the year you turn eleven.” He
explained candidly. “As to why I’m here is because a mistake was made. You are
indeed a witch, but you shouldn’t have been provided this information by
letter, but by a member of our faculty who would have explained the situation
to you and your guardians.”
He gave a slight pause to let the information sink in and then continued.
“You are listed with us as a half-blood, meaning one of your parents is a
muggle and the other a witch or wizard. In your case, you inherited your
abilities from your father, but, and here is where the mistake was made, as I
understand he left your mother some time before you were born and your mother
passed away shortly thereafter, leaving you with no one to tell you who or what
you are.”
Dumbledore stopped and let silence fall. His demeanor had become gentle and
Anna no longer felt like he was trying to invade her mind. Her annoyance had
faded and she wondered why that was. She didn’t believe the man, she couldn’t,
and surely dragging a sore topic like her mother into it all would have set her
off more than anything up to this point. But she wasn’t angry. She didn’t feel
like he was making fun of her. The air about him had turned so sincere it was
hard to imagine him lying, even if what he was saying was impossible.
Magic wasn’t real. Every phenomena in the world could be explained by the way
of science. If there was a school and a whole community of witches and wizards
someone would have noticed. It would be common knowledge. But then again,
perhaps it had been at one point. There was no shortage of legends about these
people; virtually every culture on earth mentioned them in some way or the
other.
Then there were the witch trials. A gruesome part of human history one wanted
to forget, where hundreds upon hundreds of innocent people had been burned at
the stake for witchcraft. But there were explanations for this as well. The
Salem witch trials* was a cause of puritan religious believes and a fear of the
devil, partially sparked by young women beginning to convulse and act
deliriously. Residents that did not fit the status quo were blamed for
bewitching the girls, when in truth they may very well only have been poisoned
by a toxic fungus. Explanations existed for every witch trial in the world, and
none of them included the presence of actual magic.
Then again, humans are known to explain away that which they do not understand.
If magic was real, and witches and wizards reallydid exist, certainly none who
did not possess the trait would believe it.
Her train of thought had opened for the possibility of history being
misunderstood and altered, but she still held fast on her doubts.
“I think I’d have noticed if I was a witch” Anna said, finally.
“But you have, have you not?” Dumbledore asked, his voice gaining gravity.
“Have you ever had something happen to you that you could not explain? Have you
ever done something deemed impossible? Have you ever felt you weredifferent?”
“No.” She stated, her voice final.
“Really? Are you sure? Think.” Dumbledore pressed on.
And she did, because she had indeed always felt different. Like there was
something else about her. But of course there was. She was an outsider, she
didn’t belong and never had. That wasn’t a secret and hardly proof of her being
a witch. She was about to point this out to the audacious trickster when she
remembered something else. As a girl she had been afraid of the dark, always
feeling like a presence loomed over her whenever there were no light to be had.
Wherever she had been the lights would always flicker on shortly after they had
been turned off and refuse to go out even if the switch was flicked. Once, a
storm had blown the fuse at the facility where she was training for her
physicals. Every room went dark except hers, where the light had come on
shortly after it had gone out. Mathias, who knew of her fear, had come to check
on her and couldn’t wrap his head around how the light could have stayed on in
that particular room when the entire circuit board had been fried, but waved it
away and said it was probably a backup generator of some sort. There wasn’t of
course, but neither of them had taken the incident further, rather forgetting
about it than try to explain the inexplainable.
As she delved into her memory, more and more strange occurrences popped back
into her head. Her wounds always healing quicker, and her never falling ill.
Her unusual way with animals; dogs and cats and birds and foxes always seeming
to seek and single her out. Then there was the matter of her intuition. She’d
never given it much thought since it had always been like that, but Mathias had
time and again remarked on how astonishing it was how she always seemed to
react quicker than others. Understand a situation no one else could get two
ways about. And how she’d read others like an open book. And he was not alone.
That part of her peculiarity had not gone unnoticed by the other members of the
order. Though they, and she too for that matter, believed it to be a natural
proclivity to the nature of their work. Inborn talent, as it was. It was in
fact one of the leading reasons she had been chosen for the grooming, as it was
paramount for the grand master or mistress to sport good instincts.
The leeway for truth in Dumbledores words had broadened considerably, but she
would not give in without hard proof.
“Prove it then.” She said stubbornly.
“Do you not believe me?” he chuckled.
She caught the irony in his voice, she’d have to be quite daft not to, and the
annoyance returned. Dumbledore must have sensed this because he almost
immediately reached for the bowl of walnuts, picked one up and spoke.
“I’d not have expected anything else.” He said and smiled. “Usually I would
have set a wardrobe on fire or transfigured the chair you’re sitting on into a
teacup carousel, but, alas, this will have to do.”
He extended the hand in which he held the walnut and, at first, nothing
happened, but then the shell started to crack and bits of it fell off revealing
a tiny beak. The beak chirped and digged on, breaking off more pieces of the
shell and paving way for a little bird to climb out.
“I’d have preferred the carousel.” She leered off faintly, not realizing she
did as she watched the bird with wide eyes.
The tiny creature was an eyesore. Pink skin clearly visible under it’s thin
coat of tattered feathers. The beak far too big for it’s minuscule head that
bobbed on top of it’s gangling neck. It flapped it’s teeny wings and attempted
a few steps before stumbling and planting it’s pecker right in the crevice
between Dumbledores middle- and ring finger. The sight was ludicrous and Anna
was jerked back to reality by a distorted cackling laughter she discovered was
emanating from her own throat. She cleared it and searched her mind for
something to say. Alas, it was completely blank and she heard herself babble a
confused:
“How?”.
“Magic.” Dumbledore said and winked at her. “I understand, of course, this is a
lot to take in. I’ll give you a moment to gather your thoughts and then we can
bring the others in again, I believe they’re becoming quite restless out
there.”
He set the pitiful baby bird down on the table and stood. He strolled over to
the desk at the opposite side of the room and casually started fiddling with
Florean’s calculator, leaving Anna to her thoughts.
Problem was, there were no thoughts to be had. Her mind was blank. All she
could do was stare at the bird as it clumsily wobbled towards her. She could
not remember the last time her mind had been this quiet. Usually it was filled
to the brim with reflection, speculation, scrutiny and ideas. Thoughts
scrambling and fighting for attention. But right now, in this moment, all there
was was that silly bird. It really was impossibly small, but it had come out of
a walnut after all. Still, she couldn’t see how it had managed to fit in there
considering the anatomy of a walnut. And how it had gotten in there in the
first place was inconceivable. Dumbledore had said magic, but still, there had
to be an explanation. Was it an illusion? No, she didn’t believe so. Dumbledore
had mentioned transfiguration earlier, so maybe he had transfigured the nut
inside the shell into a ready-to-hatch, miniature… bird? What species was it?
Her training had included a generous amount of knowledge, but ornithology not
amongst it. And if it had previously been a nut, was it now alive? Could it
feel?
“Is it alive? Err, I mean, can it feel?”
The question rolled off her tongue as she made the thought. She wondered
whether this was what it was like to be stupid, to just blurt things out as
they entered your mind. She rarely paraded her intellect for all to see, but
neither was she overly modest. She was sharper than most and proud of it. Yet
she had always wondered about the saying ‘not thinking before you speak' and
how she couldn’t really relate. She always planned her words carefully. Every
conversation was a game of chess, where she would lay several plans of attack,
altering them as the opponents moves excluded some of hers. This lead her to
think that brashness only applied to those of lesser minds.
She recoiled. She was getting ahead of herself again. She’d never had any
liking for boastful, overbearing people and this line of thinking she was now
traveling down ended in the exact place she never wanted to find herself. No,
not thinking before you speak and brashness may be akin of stupidity, but not
exclusively. And when she took another turn with herself she found these traits
now and then also applied to her even though they were not part of her initial
image of herself.
“…but yes, by all intents and purposes, it is alive.”
Her focus was way off and so she’d missed most of Dumbledores answer in her
haste to flatter herself.
“Sorry?” The heat rose in her cheeks as she opted for the old man to repeat
what he had said.
Dumbledore smiled and tittered, but repeated what he’d said, albeit to her
frustration, only the last part.
“Yes, it’s alive and it can feel.”
Upon hearing this and thinking it might be cold out there in the open she
picked up the wretched thing, that had quite unexpectedly made it all the way
over to her, and wrapped her hands around it. It chirped genially and curled up
to rest after the arduous journey.
“You’ve a way with birds I see.” Dumbledore remarked and put down the ballpoint
pen he’d been playing with after loosing interest in the calculator. He made
his way back to the table and sat down again.
“All animals, really. They seek me out wherever I am. I don’t really mind, but
it can be bothersome at times.”
“How unusual, wouldn’t you say?”
The note of triumph beneath his words irked her pride, for he had indeed
convinced her, even if she’d not yet taken it all in, and as silly as it was
she was neither used to nor fond of loosing. It had been an everyday occurrence
as a young child, but she’d worked hard and vigorously, and the last few years
she had gotten used to coming out on top and she disliked any other outcome. It
wasn’t really a loss though she consoled herself. She’d had no prerequisite to
believe him, and it would have been naive to accept his claims at face value.
“Now then, I really think we should let the others rejoin us before that
guardian of yours kicks down the door.” Dumbledore said, and looked to the
door.
“Mathias, may be strong, but not that strong. And I’m sure he’s too preoccupied
with Florean, he can be quite a handful when left out of the loop.”
“I figured as much,” said Dumbledore, the amused glint returning to his eyes.
“But it seems this Mathias is the most rattled, seeing as he can’t listen in.”
Anna wondered how he could know this and was about to say she’d been able to
hear what they said when listening at the door earlier, but stopped herself as
she didn’t want him to know she had.
As if he’d read her mind again he added:
“I put a spell on the room to keep our conversation private, you see.”
The heat rose in her cheeks again at being figured out, but now that she’d
learned he’d told the truth at being a wizard she had to ask:
“Can you read minds?”
“It seams the bird has taken quite a liking to you.” Dumbledore said,
altogether ignoring her question. “I’ve a bird of my own at home and wouldn’t
want him to get jealous, you may keep this one. It’s a barn owl. He may seem
small now, but he’ll grow to full size in time, and an owl might come in handy
at Hogwarts, seeing as your muggle contraptions of communication doesn’t work
there.”
Anna remembered the note enclosed with the second letter.
“It was a tracker.” She said, gaining a quizzical look from the old man. “Tied
to the owls foot, the one that delivered the first letter.” She added
hurriedly. “It was a tracker, not a‘voice transmission device’. We were trying
to trace the owl back to you, but as you know, the tracker stopped working. We
lost the signal at a warehouse for discontinued baby strollers.”
“Remarkable!” Dumbledore exclaimed. “You muggles never cease to fascinate me.”
“Do you know why it stopped working there? From what I heard there was nothing
unusual about the place except a do…” she’d been about to describe the man as
‘dotty’ like Sid had done, but thought Dumbledore might know the man and take
offense. “Eh, man in strange clothes. Is he a wizard too?”
Dumbledore didn’t let on any hard feelings about her near insult and answered:
“Oh, yes, that must have been Alfred.” He said and nodded to himself. “He went
batty after an incident at the ministry of magic where a rogue and rather nasty
piano chased him down seven floors. The poor man was so frightened he lost his
mind. But he gained a deep fascination for all things muggle, and he had worked
at the ministry for over 40 years so they kept him on as a guard for the
entrance at the warehouse. From what I gather he’s quite enthusiastic about
this.”
Anna felt awkward for almost taunting him, but was more enticed by his mention
of this ministry and the entrance. She decided to ask about the last first.
“Entrance?”
“Yes, one of many entrances across London to access the Ministry of magic. They
don’t really need guards, but I suppose they didn’t want to send Alfred packing
after so many years of devoted service.” He said and stood. “But you’ll get
answers to what I assume is a range of questions later, for now we really ought
to let the others in on our conversation.” He turned and made for the door.
“Wait! Uh…”
She halted as she realized she didn’t know what to call him. She knew his name,
but as he might come to be her headmaster she felt it may be inappropriate to
call him by his name.
“Professor.” He butted in, this time making her pretty damn sure he could read
minds and making it clear why she’d felt she had to watch herself.
“Thanks. But, professor, what exactly is a muggle?”
Chapter End Notes
     *If you’ve extended knowledge on this matter that conflict with the
     claims I’ve made here, please don’t flay me. I’ve no idea what I’m
     talking about and I literally just googled “what caused the Salem
     witch trials” and clicked on the first link. Do feel free to correct
     me, however, and I will likely update this. Thank you.
***** Chapter 3 *****
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
                               Sticks and Stones

The months and weeks after Dumbledore’s visit had gone by rather quickly.
During this time Anna had passed through several stages concerning their
conversation and her future, the first being wariness. Dumbledore had told her
to not attempt any magic outside of school, because even if she didn’t know any
spells and did not yet have a wand it was still possible for things to happen.
Like making a carton of juice come to her at breakfast without touching it or
breaking a window in a flash of anger or for no reason at all setting fire to
the living room sofa, as Dumbledore told her he himself had done at the mere
age of six years old. And so Anna was on constant guard, afraid of what she
might do seeing as her life could occasionally be quite hectic. But after two
weeks and no sign of any magic trying to escape her, she relaxed. She had after
all not had anything happen since she’d gotten over her fear of the dark years
ago.
The next stage then was of course curiosity. She’d been able to avoid anything
happen, but could she make it so if she tried to? She shouldn’t of course, she
knew that, but what if? What could be the harm in making the glass of water on
her nightstand move a few inches when no one was looking? And so she tried and
tried, staring intently at that stupid glass for hours after she should have
gone to bed to try and make it move, but it stood as glued to the wooden
surface, not budging an inch.
Then came frustration. Why wouldn’t it move!? If it was possible to
accidentally set a sofa on fire without a wand or a spell then surely she
should be able to move that glass when she bloody tried! She went on to try and
make other things move. She tried to make them rattle, float, fall over or
disappear, but all her efforts were for naught. She got more and more reckless.
Attempting to bang the door in Khadir’s face when he was getting on her nerves
or jump from high places in the hope she would fly or at least hover a bit so
as not to hit the ground with full force, but it only ever ended in hurt, be it
her pride when she just stood staring at the door while Khadir taunted her or a
twisted ankle as she hit the ground.

Then came gloom. Maybe Dumbledore had been wrong and that she wasn’t a witch at
all. Maybe what had happened as a child had just been coincidence and her other
powers were indeed only inborn talent as the others seemed to think. But this
stage lasted for but a few hours. She knew Dumbledore wasn’t wrong. She could
feel it, and thought that maybe magic would only come to her, or come out of
her, when she wasn’t expecting it. Maybe the reason there had been no incidents
for so long was that she’d learned to control it. It made sense. After all,
emotions were also a thing one had to learn to control and keep in check if one
didn’t want them to fly all over the place for all the world to see. Perhaps
magic was a kind of emotion as well? Or a force that fed on them at least. And
since Anna had such a good grip on hers maybe this was the reason she couldn’t
do anything, and why when things did happen it was only ever by accident.
Whatever it was, she realized she wouldn’t be able to force it, she just had to
grease herself with patience and let the pieces fall where they may, and so the
next step was indifference.

She pushed the memory of Dumbledore and their conversation out of her mind. She
hid the Hogwarts acceptance letters and the note away in a drawer she rarely
opened, and imagined Gulliver as an ordinary bird. This all went smoothly if
not for the fact that Mathias kept constantly reminding her of the things she
tried to put out of her mind. He was the only one in the chapter who knew,
apart from her, and so had only her to talk to about it. Because of this she
started regretting they’d decided to leave Florean out of it. The unknown agent
had smoothed it over with him. Telling him that Anna had been picked for a
special program that started in September and that she would be away for most
of the year, but would be allowed breaks to come visit from time to time. And
as curious as Florean might have been, he didn’t dare oppose such a high
ranking agent, and accepted, at least outwardly, that this was all he would be
told. And he’d been wise in doing so for the agent, as it turned out, had been
the grand master himself. Of course this had only been made clear to Anna and
Mathias, the others still believed him to be simply ‘one of the higher-ups’.
After they’d gotten over the shock, and finished bowing and scraping,
Dumbledore had explained to them that a few leaders in the muggle society had
been let in on the secret that magic was real and witches and wizards existed,
so that should anything of a magical nature happen publicly in the muggle
world, the ministry and the muggle leaders could work together to resolve the
problem without breaking the statue of secrecy or giving the ministry workers
the immense task of wiping and altering the memories of thousands of people.
Still, Anna realized too late, letting Florean in on it would have taken care
of several problems. Firstly, Mathias would have had someone else other than
her to pester with his musings. And secondly, perhaps bringing the two together
to converse about a shared secret would eliminate some of the tension between
them, and also leaving Mathias with someone to talk to after she’d gone off to
Hogwarts. But they’d decided and Anna didn’t want to change the plan and bring
the news down on her chapter master all out of the blue just because she’d
gotten it into her head she had to forget about the whole thing for a while.
Besides, she couldn’t prove it to him, and she doubted Florean would believe
just her words. He’d surely assume she was pulling his leg and making fun of
him and put some daunting task on her shoulders as punishment. No, she just had
to tolerate Mathias and try and shut him out along with everything else.
Needless to say that didn’t go so well. Mathias wasn’t one to just blabber on
just for the sake of it, expecting no answers. Or, well, he was, but not where
this matter was concerned. He kept prodding her to humor him with mutual
conversation and so indifference turned into the last stage; acceptance.

She stopped pretending and postponing and trying to make magic happen by
accident and accepted she had to wait until school started to see if there
really was any in her. Still nothing would happened, but she didn’t mind
anymore. Actually she was quite glad of it. She realized she really didn’t want
to have to explain away the inexplainable. That was, until August 20, only
three days before she was to go with Mathias and Dumbledore to Diagon Alley,
wherever that was, to buy her books and whatever else she would need for the
coming year, and ten days until she’d be at Kings Cross station, waving her
guardian farewell, off to a new world and a new life.
Anna, along with Sid, Sonya, Kaspian, a newly appointed agent, Cora, an old,
experienced one, and Mika, a novice, were off to stake out some warehouse used
for illegal drug trade a ways off from the city. A simple job, but since they’d
taken a novice with them there were naturally more to consider than usual. The
novice, Mika, had the jitters all the way. She’d failed the field test four
times already and did not want to gun for a fifth, but pressure was weighing
heavily on her and so she made an inevitable mistake. She panicked when one of
the thugs from the warehouse got too close. Thought he had seen her, and
knocked him out so as to keep him from raising an alarm. But by doing this she
made sure she actually was seen and what had only been intended as a
reconnaissance trip turned into a fully armed fight. Luckily there were no
casualties. But Kaspian took a shiv in the side and Sonya was graced by a
bullet as they were retreating. The others were pretty sour with Mika,
especially Kaspian. Though the shiv hadn’t struck very deep it was still
painful, and he grumbled about it the whole way back. Sonya, however, took her
injury like a champ and joined Anna onteam Mika, cheering her up and told her
she would have another chance, she only needed to work on her nerves more and
she’d pass with flying colors.

In truth, Mika had already had more chances than she should have. Normally when
a novice had failed as many times as she had they’d be assigned to another part
of the order, one not including field work, but Mika was a talented fighter.
She was strong for her age and sex and her reflexes were only outmatched by
Anna herself. She’d taken to the technical aspect of training incredibly fast
and showed no problem enduring physical pain when in the safe space of a
training area. And so it had surprised everyone when she’d fluked her first
trip into the field. Even more so as she kept failing and tripping up.

The most intense and dangerous missions were of course not assigned to
trainees. Usually their jobs consisted of pick ups and deliveries of low-
importance packages or reconnaissance like what they had done last night;
staking out and obtaining information on groups of inconsequential criminals
working for a rival organization or simply harassing the public. Though
undercover missions were usually quite simple and only required one to keep
their ears pointed and to stay in a given character, they rarely fell to
fledglings like Mika and Anna seeing as children would stand out quite
profoundly amongst the ranks of grown-ups. And Anna doubted Mika would be able
to pull off such a deception anyways, she was far to jumpy.

For all their efforts Mika was inconsolable and Anna soon tired of the gloom.
She may have sympathy for the novice, but she wasn’t about to excuse lengthy
self-pity. If Anna had been able to suck it up and overcome her difficulties,
then so too should Mika.

She got up and went to sit up front with Kaspian and Cora, who’d been looking
to Kaspian’s wound. The quiet hadn’t lasted for long though for the thugs from
earlier had given chase and now caught up. Sid, who was driving the vehicle,
stepped hard on the gas and made Anna regret sorely she’d not buckled in. She
went flying across the car and hit her head on the back door so hard she almost
fainted. In her daze she grabbed for the handle of the back door to stabilize
herself and so managed to open it, right when Sid swung the car around a sharp
turn, resulting in her being hurled out.

It was a short trip to the ground, but it felt like a lifetime. The world was a
swirl of black and grey and trails of light and then she landed face down in
the mud. The landing wasn’t as hard as she’d expected. Considering the speed of
the car surely she should be dead, or at least gravely wounded, but she felt
fine. Or rather not too bad. Her head drummed like crazy, likely a result of
the concussion she must have sustained from her rather rough meeting with the
car door, and her wrist was almost certainly sprained, but she was alive, and
more importantly she could run.

She gotten up and sped off. Her face was covered in muck and she couldn’t see
where she was going, but it was forward and away from danger. She heard someone
on her trail, but didn’t falter, and kept running until her lungs were ready to
burst and her head threatened to render her unconscious.

She reached a forest of some sort, at least there were trees, and she collapsed
down behind a thick trunk to rest and take in her surroundings. She wiped her
hands on the thick, dewy moss and then ripped some off it up to wipe her face.
She opened her eyes and blinked away the dirt that had found it’s way into them
and saw that, to her relief, she wasn’t so far way from the city as she’d
thought. Though her vision was blurry, probably another compliment paid to her
by the concussion, she could see lights in the distance and even hear the faint
hum of nighttime traffic. She sat a while longer, until she was as sure as she
could be her pursuers had lost wind, and then hoisted her unwilling body up and
went off again.

She hoped the others were fine and that they’d not turned back for her, in fact
she was quite certain they hadn’t. To their minds she must be either dead or
dying. They’d surely get back safely and wait until first light and go look for
her then, by which time she’d hopefully already be back at HQ.

She thanked the gods Mathias had not been on the team. If he’d not jumped out
of the car after her he would almost definitely have demanded they stop and go
back, even if it meant putting the rest of the team in the line of fire. She
was his weakness and he was hers. They both knew it. In fact it was common
knowledge and the exact reason they were rarely dispatched together.

Anna stumbled through the underbrush and onto a side road. She kept to the side
of it so as to quickly hide from passing cars, though they were few and far
between. It was the middle of August and so not very dark out, even at this
time of night, but a thick curtain of fog had begun to gather in the air and
the lights from the city grew fainter and fainter the closer she got. For a
while she could only see approximately five meters ahead and so blessed her
keen sense of direction that without she would have been lost.

Finally she reached the edge of the city and recognized the small shoemakers
shop amongst a line of crumbling apartment buildings. She’d gone there once to
treat herself to a new pair of boots, the ones she was currently been wearing
in fact. The man running the shop and been very kind and the boots had turned
out splendidly, never pinching or galling and felt like wearing nothing at all.
A fact she currently rued as she’d have sold her aunt, if she even had one, for
something a bit sturdier and supporting. But her spirits renewed for from the
shop there were only about half an hour left to go before she could sink her
aching body into a warm bath and then into a warm bed. She knew they’d wake her
every hour to check on her, because by now she was pretty sure she really did
have a concussion. She was nauseous, wobbly, her head was killing her and she
had to squint to tolerate the lights from the windows and street lamps above.

When at long last she arrived back at HQ she found it once again in uproar, but
as soon as they started noticing her presence the chaos subsided. They all
looked as if they’d seen a ghost, and maybe they had, she surely felt dead
enough. Sid was the first to break the silence and speak. Or rather, he
bellowed:

“Anna! How the hell are you all right!?”
He got up and started making his way towards her, followed by several others,
making Anna afraid they would poke and prod at her, something her sore muscles
and aching wrist desperately wanted to avoid.
“You werethrown out of acar speeding at 150*, you should have been squashed!”
He continued, but seemed to realize how his words had sounded and quickly
added: “I’m glad you weren’t of course, but how the hell?…”
He trailed off and bent down. He motioned to touch her, confirming her fears,
and she backed away quickly, holding her arms up.

“I’ve no idea, Sid, It happened quickly! There was a lot of mud, perhaps that
took some of the fall off, but I really, honestly don’t know and I’m tired and
my body is aching, and I’ve walked for hours, so if you don’t mind I really
just want to wash off and head to bed, we can talk about the how’s and all that
tomorrow.”

She glanced around to see if everyone from the team had made it back in one
piece and then started limping around Sid, towards her room, and ended:
“I’m glad to see the rest of you are all right. Good night.”

Oh, how she longed for that bath, but it would have to wait because just as she
was leaving Florean entered, closely followed by Mathias. Florean had about the
same reaction as Sid and everyone else, but not as much time to express it,
because before he’d gotten the first words over his lips Mathias had ran up to
Anna and hugged her. Hard. Her body screamed. The pain was so intense she
couldn’t even muster the energy to cry out. She closed her eyes and waited for
it to pass, but Mathias didn’t seem like he was about to let go any time soon
and she managed to choke out a few, weak words, telling him it hurt. Mathias
must have remembered what had happened to her because he dropped her so fast
she lost her balance and fell hard on her ass, earning more howls of agony from
her sore limbs.

“I’m so sorry, I thought you were dead, I didn’t think, I… how… Are you all
right?” He stuttered, helping her up and handling her with a great more care
this time around.

He knelt down in front of her and started gently checking for injuries, but by
now she felt so faint she hardly noticed it. She heard him saying something,
but she was more concerned about her vision growing increasingly blurry and
black spots dancing before her eyes. She knew she was going down and all she
could do was offer a warning.

“I’m fainting…” she maundered and the world went black.
Chapter End Notes
     *Kilometers per hour in whatever measurement Norway uses so won’t
     necessarily make sense where you’re from. I don’t know the first
     thing about car or anything related so yeah.
***** The Journey to Charing Cross Road *****
                       The Journey to Charing Cross Road

She woke up with a start. The room around her was unfamiliar, until she spotted
a scraggy bird sleeping perched on one of the posts at the end of the bed she
was lying in. It was her room of course. She didn’t know why she hadn’t
recognized it at first, but blamed it on her headache. She put a hand to her
forehead and sighed. The bird, who was the same one Dumbledore had hatched out
of a walnut in Florean’s office, lifted an eyelid and looked lazily at her
before closing it again and went back to sleep. She’d named him Gulliver; after
the man from the fairytale that had happened upon a land full of tiny people,
making himself seem a giant. There were of course no similarities between the
two, because Gulliver the owl had been the tiniest thing she’d ever laid eyes
on and so the name had only been intended as a joke, but it had stuck in her
mind and thus stuck with him.
He’d grown a considerable amount since then, but wasn’t any less of an an
eyesore. His coat may have thickened, but was still fluffy and uneven. His head
had grown to fit both his beak and his neck and a halo of golden feathers had
begun to show around his face, but only served to make him look as if he was
wearing a mask. Anna had looked up the breed to see if it had any special needs
and found that, fully grown, the barn owl was a very handsome species, though
when young they were down right ugly.
Yet, she liked having him around. He didn’t demand much as he came and went as
he liked and got his own dinner, but he would occasionally sit and hoot in the
middle of the night, something that did not go over well with Anna or any of
the other members of the chapter. Once, he’d woken her up at three o’ clock in
the morning. And since it was summer and light came early she’d assumed, in her
delirious state of waking, it was time to get up. And so she had dressed and
droned her way to the service hall for breakfast. She’d been joined by a
handful of other zombies and it had taken them a full half hour to realize that
it was not time to get up for several hours yet. This had earned her some sour
comments and promises to pluck and debeak ‘that bloody bird’ if he so much as
squeaked one more time during the night. And as much as she detested her
companion’s take on circadian rhythms, she wouldn’t want anyone to harm him and
so pleaded with him to ‘just shut up, for heavens sake’, and miraculously, he
did.
It shouldn’t really come as a surprise he’d done as she’d asked, since she’d
always had a way with animals, but Gulliver was different. He didn’t cling to
her or seek her out much like other animals did. Instead he appeared to simply
occasionally delight in her company, and otherwise do as he pleased. He was
independent. She didn’t know why that was, but suspected it might have
something to do with the fact he was not an actual bird. A real one. Or, no, he
was, but… Oh, what the hell, she didn’t know. Maybe he was as genuine as any
other, but her knowledge of magic was limited to what Dumbledore had deigned to
inform her, which really wasn’t a whole lot.
He’d told her a little about Hogwarts and how muggles, if they happened upon
it, would see nothing but a rundown ruin and a plentiful of warning signs so as
to keep them out. Though she thought that if this was their only security
measure then it was a poor one. It was common knowledge that the more dangerous
a place was proclaimed to be the more attention and curious it would draw. She
herself had never been able to resist such a temptation, but reckoned there had
to be more to it and so left it alone.
Then he’d told her about ‘the statue of secrecy’, and how it was vital she not
tell anyone about what he had told her and about where she was going. Not that
he had needed to make the point, for Anna had no intention of divulging the
secret as she’d had enough ridicule to last her a lifetime. She’d told him this
as well, but he still made her swear to not sneak a word of it to anyone under
any circumstances, lest her life depended on it. She’d sworn and he’d gone on
to tell her bits and pieces of fascination, but none of real importance, and
then a lengthy treatise about the different sweets and pastries she could
expect to find in Diagon Alley; Where she would have to go to buy her books and
other necessities.
She sat up, but immediately regretted she’d done so abruptly. It felt like
every muscle in her body had been individually punched, one after the other,
and the wrist of her right hand, that she had used to push herself up, was on
fire. Her head started swimming and she fell back down on the pillows. But
through the fog in her mind she thought about that place; Diagon Alley. She had
to buy her books! They were going there today and she had to get ready, but her
body wouldn’t listen to her and promptly made sure she stayed down.
Was it today? She realized she didn’t know. The panic faded and she tried to
recall what had happened to make her so sore. After a while the images
returned. The mission and the retreat. The chase and her fall. Good god, she’d
fallen out of a speeding car! Suddenly her aching limbs made sense and she
continued to explore her memory. It was being thrown against the back door of
the car that had caused her head injury and the fall out of it that was the
reason her wrist hurt. The fall had probably caused most of her other pains as
well, but the flight and the long walk back home probably hadn’t made things
much better.
“How are you feeling?”
The words took her by surprise as she realized Gulliver wasn’t her only
company. Hunched over in a chair by her bed sat Mathias, still half asleep by
the looks of it. The sight of him triggered the remainder of her memories to
come back. Her return and how he’d reacted to the sight of her being alive and
seeing that she was if not well then at least in one piece. What followed was
but a blur of jumbled images. Bright light, then darkness. Voices asking her
name and other obvious questions. Mathias holding her hand and stroking her
forehead, telling her she’d be all right.
She could see clear signs of worry in his face even now, and judging by the
enormous bags under his eyes he’d been awake all night, watching over her. She
cleared her throat to answer him, but no sound came out, only a rasping
whisper. Mathias leaned forward and picked up a glass of water from the
nightstand and passed it to her. She took it with her left hand as she didn’t
want to strain her right one any more than she already had. It shook a bit, but
she managed to bring it to her lips. She emptied it and handed it back to
Mathias who got up and went over to the sink to refill it and then handed it
back to her. She got halfway through this one before yet again handing it to
Mathias who brought it to his own lips and finished it. She felt moisture
returning to her eyes and the sand beneath her lids dissipated as she opened
them fully and looked at the man beside her.
“How are you feeling?” He repeated the question from before, his voice much
clearer this time around.
“Better. A bit sore, but well rested at least.” She croaked and gave him a
smile so as to take off some of his worry. “How long was I out for?” She added.
When they’d gone out on the mission there’d been three days until her trip to
Diagon Alley, and despite her shock when she’d woken up, she was quite sure she
hadn’t been out for three days. But it felt as though she’d slept for a
lifetime and so she had to ask, just to be sure.
“16 hours. Off and on. We had to wake you to keep and eye on that concussion of
yours. I was told you were thrown out of a car? At 150 kilometers per hour… How
are you alive?”
“I don’t know.” She replied truthfully. “It happened so fast and suddenly I was
face down in the mud.”
“Was it magic?”
He said the word magic hesitantly as if he was unsure of it’s viability as an
explanation.
“I can’t think of any other explanation, so yeah, probably. I’ll have to ask
Dumbledore, when next we see him.” She said matter-of-factly, leading the
conversation onto a new topic. “We’ll meet him when we go to Diagon Alley, I’ll
ask him then.”
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea…” Mathias said hesitantly.
He’d been against her going to Hogwarts all the way. Said that even if
Dumbledore had been okay he didn’t know nor trust the other ‘teachers’. He said
it like he still didn’t believe she was actually going to attend a school for
magic, but Anna suspected the real reason was that he didn’t want to let her
leave the nest just yet. He’d had to suck it up though, for she was going to
Hogwarts whether he liked it or not, though she would miss him. He’d been her
only friend and ally her whole life and never had they been away from each
other for long. And now she was to go to a school far away where he couldn’t
visit? She understood his reservation, felt it herself even, through her
excitement and curiosity.
“We’re going.” She said stubbornly. “It’s not for two days yet and I’ll be good
and rest up in bed until then, but we’re going, no two ways about it.”
Mathias nodded. They’d already been over it a hundred times and he knew it was
no use trying to change her mind and so changed the topic instead.
“Are you hungry? There’s some dinner put aside for you, I could go heat it up
if you like? It’s not much, and definitely not your favorite, but it’s better
than nothing and you need some sustenance.”
For the first time during their whole exchange Mathias smiled as he gestured to
her tiny frame. He was always on her about being too skinny. That she couldn’t
possibly build muscles from skin and bone alone, but to this she answered that
strength did not always lie in muscle mass and at this he would laugh and give
her a slap on the back. Mathias on the other hand were quite sizely, and those
slaps knocked the wind out of her every time. At first she’d thought he just
didn’t know his own strength, but with time came to realize that those
‘friendly pats on the back’ were his way of saying‘keep telling yourself that,
kid’.
“What is it?” She asked warily.
“Chicken and rice.”
She wrinkled her nose. She’d never been fond of chicken. Firstly, she thought
it unnecessary to indulge in meat so cruelly harvested, but mostly she just
didn’t like the taste. It was dry and always got stuck between her teeth, and
rice was not much better, but she was famished and so accepted Mathias’ offer.
“I’ll pass on the chicken, but rice with…”
“Butter.”
“… will do just fine.” She ended as Mathias winked to her.
Her pallet wasn’t exactly news to him, but it dawned on her exactly how much of
a creature of habit she was and made a mental note to try and go out of her
ways a bit when at Hogwarts.
===============================================================================
She regained her strength over the next two days and when the morning of their
trip to Diagon Alley arrived she got up at the crack of dawn. They’d received
an owl from Dumbledore the day before, stating the time and place they were to
meet the man who was to assist them. Anna, who had gotten the impression
Dumbledore himself would do them the honors, was puzzled and wondered what this
mystery man would be like, and a bit disappointed she wouldn’t get to see
Dumbledore again as soon as she’d liked to bombard him with her questions. But
this other man would surely be able to sate her curiosity as well.
Lost in thought she sat up on the side of her bed and retrieved her acceptance
letter from the nightstand. She’d read it over and over since it had arrived
eight months ago and she knew every word by heart. But it was a reminder this
wasn’t all in her head and so she liked to fiddle with it.
As she sat there on the bed, tracing her finger distantly over the yellowed
parchment, she listened to the traffic down in the street beneath her window.
It grew gradually noisier as the city started to wake up and she wished she
could shut the window to get some quiet. But the glass had been broken sometime
yesterday evening as someone had thrown a rock at it while Anna was having
supper out in the service hall. She hadn’t noticed until late because she’d
stayed behind, conversing with the others for hours after they’d eaten. News
had spread that she was going away for some top secret program and they were
all bursting with curiosity, bombarding her with questions trying to extract
even the slightest hint at what this entailed. But Anna had kept her lips
sealed tight and they’d moved on to other topics. She wasn’t sure of the cause,
but lately everyone had been substantially friendlier towards her. Apart from
Khadir’s usual badgering, none had uttered an unfeeling word in her direction.
She was even getting the impression some of them were sad she was going away.
When she’d mentioned this to Mathias he’d made a face and said it’d been ‘about
bloody time’ and added that they’d all been worried when she’d gone missing
during that mission and perhaps realized she was their sister whom they did in
fact care for. She still didn’t know if this was the case, but the thought
warmed her heart and she thought it a shame she was to leave when at last she
was accepted fully for who she is and her heritage forgiven, or at least
temporarily forgotten. But she couldn’t let the opportunity pass her by. Magic
was the stuff of fairy tales. A wonderful and mysterious force in the world
that every child had dreamed of at some point; only her dreams were coming
true.
She shifted her attention to the mess on the floor and sighed. She may have
been too tired to clean it up when she’d returned to her room yesterday, but
she was well rested now an so couldn’t postpone it any longer. Just as she was
getting up there was a soft knock on the door, probably so as not to wake her
if she was still asleep. Which, really, she should be; She usually took the
chance to sleep in when she could, but today was too exciting. As she made her
way to her closet to get changed she called for the visitor to come in. Mathias
appeared in the doorway, dressed and also looking fully awake.
“My, aren’t you up early?” She mused and fixed him with an impish eye. 
“Is that a crime now?” He said, suddenly defensive.
“Oh, no, not at all. Just… Unusual.” She tittered and started perusing her
meager collection of clothing for something appropriate to wear.
He looked at her, affronted, but before making a retort noticed the glass on
the floor and the broken window, and every aspiration of an early-morning
argument disappeared from his mind.
“What the hell happened here?”
“Someone, probably gang of brats having some fun,” She weighed on the word so
as to signal she did not share the culprits idea of a good time and continued.
“Threw a stone at the window while I was having supper yesterday. I didn’t get
back until late and was too tired to clear it up then.”
She picked out a T-shirt with the logo of some band she had never heard of and
a pair of well-worn jeans that had once upon a time been a rich shade of blue,
but had by now been washed out so thoroughly they looked more grey, and started
putting them on while continuing her conversation with Mathias, who didn’t
bother to turn away. Nothing to be seen that he hadn’t already.
“And before you give me a lecture, I was about to clean it up before you came
calling. You can help me if you like.”
Mathias, who had obviously intended to keep to lecturing her, shut his mouth
and searched for a way to get out of the extra work, but Anna, who’d now
finished dressing, thwarted his get-away by handing him the big, worn-out broom
that had stood leaned up against the side of the closet and went about picking
up the bigger pieces that the broom would have trouble with. In a few minutes
the floor was spotless and they went to get breakfast ready for the others,
seeing as they were awake anyway and in need of something to do. Some of the
agents seemed to suffer from the same opinion of mornings as Anna and Mathias
usually did, but overall spirits were high.
When the clock finally struck twelve and signaled it was time for Anna and
Mathias to get going, Anna practically ran down the stairs and out the door,
hauling Mathias after her. The trip into central London and Charing Cross Road,
where they were to meet with their guide at a bookshop, went by in silence.
Mathias’ mood worsened with every mile and he started fidgeting, tapping his
fingers restlessly on the wheel and looking constantly around as though he was
afraid they were being followed. Anna didn’t want to disturb him and set him
off on yet another rant about the whole thing being a bad idea, but as they
brought the car into a parking house and came to a halt Mathias didn’t get out
of the car and so Anna asked if he wasn’t coming. He opened his mouth to
answer, but quickly closed it again and took another restless look about,
bringing Anna’s patience to an end.
“For heaven’s sake man, there are nobody following us! Will you stop your
fidgeting so we can go meet this guy?”
He completely ignored her blatant frustration and once again looked as if he
was on the verge of saying something before changing his mind. Anna took a deep
breath and tried to calm herself so as not to stir up a fight.
“What is it?” She asked in as gentle a voice as she could muster, but couldn’t
help a note of command seeping through.
Mathias shifted in his seat and tapped on the wheel a few times more before
finally answering her.
“I’ve got a really bad feeling about this, Anna.” He looked at her, his eyes
burrowing deep into hers. “I don’t trust this guy.”
“You haven’t even met him!” She part shouted, part moaned.
“I told you, I have a bad feeling about this. I’m taking us back.” He reached
for the keys and turned the car back on as she reached for the door.
“The hell you are.” She snarled through gritted teeth and opened the door to
get out.
Mathias reached for her, grabbed her by the arm and yanked her back in.
“Listen to me, Anna, I’m telling you not to go.”
“And I’m telling you I am. With or without you.”
“It’s not a request, kid, it’s an order. We’re going back!”
He started putting the car in reverse, but Anna reached for the keys, turned
them and yanked them out so that he couldn’t turn it back on. Mathias shot his
hand out, grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her close so that he could wring
the keys from her hand, but he never got that far as Anna howled in pain. He’d
forgotten about her injury and so had yanked at her hurt wrist. He immediately
let go and Anna jumped at the opportunity to get out of the car and started
trampling away. Mathias also got out, and went after her, catching up at the
door to the stairs leading out of the garage. He put his hand on the door so
that she couldn’t open it and the other on her shoulder so as to stop her from
turning and making for another way out.
“I’m sorry, Anna…” He said tenderly. “I really am. I forgot…”
“Oh, I’m not angry you hurt me, I’m quite used to that. I’m…”
But she didn’t get to finish because Mathias flared up again.
“Used to it!? When have I ever hurt you!?”
He stepped back and Anna spun around to face him.
“I didn’t mean you, you oaf! I’m used to being hurt in general! Or have you
forgotten that too?”
Mathias flinched and she could see she’d hit a nerve, but wasn’t about to take
pity, and continued.
“I’m angry because you’re so stubborn. I’m angry because you won’t listen to
me. I’m angry that you decide at the last possible moment to rip away something
I’ve made abundantly clear is important to me. And I’m bloody angry that you,
of all people, don’t understand any of this and push me around like everyone
else have done my entire fucking life!”
She only realized how high she’d been yelling when the echo bounced off the
walls, boomed through the entire building and resounded in her ears for several
seconds before dying out. She could feel a lump forming in her throat, but
pushed it down and went on.
“I’ve a chance at a new life, Mathias. Skills most people could only dream of.
I don’t understand why you would stand in may way just because you suddenly
decide to get paranoid.”
“You’ve a life here! And you already have skills most people will never attain.
Hell, you’ve been chosen for the grooming! That’s a great honor and whatI don’t
understand is why you would abandon that to go off and wave a stick around!”
Anna didn’t answer, instead she just leaned back against the door and looked at
him, unimpressed. After a few seconds of silence he got uncomfortable and
danced around what Anna had suspected for a long time was the real reason for
his misgivings.
“We don’t know this man we’re about to meet, but he probably has the same
powers that Dumbledog guy…”
“Dumbledore.” She corrected him and looked even more displeased than before.
“Dumbledore, whatever.” He waved his hand and continued. “My point is that we
don’t really know what he can do. What any of them can do. I mean, if they can
set fire to a house by accident, imagine what they’re able to accomplish
deliberately.”
He took a pause to see if he’d get any reaction from her, but was only greeted
by a stern scowl.
“We’ve no way to predict their actions and thus no way to defend ourselves,
should that be necessary.”
Anna rolled her eyes and looked away from him.
“So you’re scared? You happen onto something you don’t understand and you’d
rather run away and forget, so that you won’t have to deal with it. That it?”
Mathias started to answer, but the fire had returned to Anna and she pushed
herself away from the door, going on the attack.
“What reason could this man possibly have to hurt me, hmm? I’ve done no harm,
not to him and not to any of his kind. I’ve been accepted at a school. If they
wanted to dispose of me they could have done so long ago, no need to go through
all this trouble. Think about it, Mathias, we now know there are such a things
as witches and wizards. If you let go of your fear for but a moment it makes
perfect sense that such a community wouldn’t want to have untrained individuals
with no knowledge of their power walk about to stir up god knows how much
trouble. They’d want to train them, teach them control so that they wouldn’t
expose the whole caboodle!”
She threw arms up as she got more and more agitated.
“Besides, aren’t you being selfish? Isn’t the real reason you’re trying to drag
me back, kicking and screaming, that you don’t want me to go for your own sake?
Have you ever stopped to think that maybe I don’t want this life? That I don’t
want to risk it all every goddamn time I peak my head out the door. That I
don’t find it fun being chased down, shot at and thrown out of speeding cars!”
She was panting now, trembling with fury.
“Has it even crossed your mind that maybe I’d ‘ave been better off if you’d not
held onto me as a mere memento of a woman who chose someone else over you!”
She regretted the words as soon as they had left her, but there was no taking
it back now and she steeled herself for the oncoming storm. But none came.
Instead Mathias moved over to the wall beside her and sat down, patting the
floor so as to signal her to do the same. She followed his lead and they sat
without saying anything for a while, letting their argument sink in and their
blood cool down.
Anna’s conscience started to make itself known. She’d been so angry she hadn’t
cared what she’d said, only jabbed at what she thought might put him off enough
to leave her alone, but now that she had time to think she realized the full
extent of her words. Just when she was about to tell Mathias she was sorry, he
spoke.
“How’s your wrist?”
She looked questioningly at him and he nodded to her lap where her hands were
lying completely still as if to remind her the wrist a part of her body. She
shook her head and told him not to worry about it, and went on with her
apology.
“Mathias… I’m sorry about what I said, I…”
But Mathias laid a hand on hers and shook his head.
“Anna Henrietta. My dearest Annarietta…” He sang. “Do not apologize, please.”
The old nickname resonated through her and the lump in her throat returned once
more. It’d been years since he’d called her that, at least in all seriousness,
and she felt like she was back in their room, crying on his bed as he stroked
her head and told her to be brave. And that because of her tears and hardship
she’d grow to be the strongest, most beautiful woman he would ever have the
honor to know. It seemed Mathias was of the same mind because he put his arm
around her, pulled her close to him and spoke softly into her hair.
“Your words were harsh, true, but not unjustified. I am afraid. And I do not
want to loose you. But the reason goes back further than you might think.”
He drew breath, collecting his mind before pressing on.
“When I learned that magic was real,”
He hesitated again, trying to find the right words.
“And when you told me of how it seemed like Dumbledore could read your mind, I
remembered your mother. I thought of how she changed when she met your father.
I always said he’d poisoned her mind, but I never fully believed it, but now
that I know that is exactly what could have happened it makes me angry and it
makes me afraid.“
Guilt washed over Anna as she realized how stupid she’d been. She’d never given
much thought to her father as she’d never met the man and he was rarely brought
up. She’d just accepted the news of him being where she’d inherited the
wizarding gene and then put him back on the shelf, but of course this news must
have been quite different for Mathias.
“We don’t know where or how he is and Dumbledore didn’t mention their
authorities having arrested him. What if he comes to claim you as his own? Will
this ministry protect you or favor him as your father, given he is one of their
own. I’d intended to ask Dumbledore about this all today, but seeing as we’re
to meet someone else…”
Anna pushed herself away from Mathias so as to look at him as she spoke.
“I’m sure Dumbledore wouldn’t send someone he didn’t trust.”
“Not deliberately, no.”
Anna wanted to butt in again, but Mathias cut her off.
“I’m afraid to send you off where I cannot protect you, Anna. Where I cannot
even come to visit.”
He reached out and gently took her injured hand in his.
“I shouldn’t have reacted the way I did, and I’m sorry. I know I can’t keep you
if you want to go, but please think about this. You’re still very young and
inexperienced and…”
At this Anna straightened her back and puffed out her chest.
“I’m not a typical eleven year old though, am I? If anyone tries to hurt me
they’ll be in for a surprise.”
She smiled giddily at him and he returned the sentiment by grabbing her face
and squeezing repeatedly, making her look like a fish.
“I know that, Annarietta, you’re fighty and you’re good at it.”
She pushed his hands away and he straightened himself a bit.
“I wouldn’t have opposed if you were going to an ordinary school, or anywhere
really, but from what I’ve seen you can’t fight magic with your fists.”
He had a point of course, but Anna wasn’t about to give up just yet.
“I’m sure magic wouldn’t stop your nose breaking if you were kicked in the
face.”
He didn’t grace her with an answer, instead he fixed her with an exasperated
look, the equal of ‘Really?’. She sighed and lent back against the wall again,
resting her head on the uneven surface as she turned serious once more.
“Look, I understand your reservations, I do, but you have to overcome them
somehow. I’m going to Hogwarts. I want this. I want to learn about a world I
never knew existed and I want the chance to be someone else. I didn’t mean what
I said earlier, about being better off outside the order. I’m thankful and
happy that you fought for me, and I like the work we do, mostly. But I’ve never
known anything else either. I don’t know what it’s like to go to school and
make friends with people your own age and break the rules and do stupid things
together. I don’t know what it’s like to have your biggest worry be an
unfinished piece of homework. I’m not unhappy in the life I have now, but I
want the chance to see if it can be more. I mean, wouldn’t you?”
Mathias sunk back against the wall and rested his head the same as Anna and
closed his eyes. She’d obviously swayed him even if he wouldn’t admit it, and
they sat in silence for a little while before he got to his feet and held his
hand out to her.
“Well then, I believe we’re fashionably late to meet with this fellow. Better
get going and hope he hasn’t tired of waiting.”
She took his hand and got up herself and Mathias went to open the door leading
them out to the busy street below. They navigated themselves through the crowd
and found their way to the bookshop where they were to meet their mystery
guide. Mathias put his hand on the handle of the door, but before opening it
turned to Anna and said:
“If he asks, we got stuck in traffic.”
***** Beer and Broken Bones *****
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
                            Beers and Broken Bones
 
Severus looked impatiently at the clock behind the counter stationed alongside
the west wall of the bookshop where he was waiting to meet with a muggle and
his ward, whom had been accepted into Hogwarts. When Albus had asked him to
show them around Diagon Alley and help this new student buy her things for the
coming school year he’d said he wasn’t interested, but then the headmaster had
asked again and Severus had gotten the distinct impression it hadn’t been a
request. Still, he’d put up a fight, but in the end conceded, and here he was
and the girl was late.
He looked at the lady behind the counter and then at the menu hanging on the
wall beside her and wondered if he should order anything. He’d skipped
breakfast as he’d thought he’d get this business done quickly, but his company
was 15 minutes late, and counting, and he was fast becoming rather peckish. Not
to mention the lady was sending curious glances his way when she thought he
wasn’t looking, no doubt a result of him just sitting there, not ordering
anything or perusing the shop’s vast collection of books. He decided to keep it
that way though. He didn’t have any muggle money anyways and if these people
didn’t show within the next five minutes he’d just leave and Albus would have
to send someone else in his stead.
He ignored the lady’s attention and stared steely into the air. To his
annoyance he could see she picked up her attention and walked out from behind
the counter and came towards where he was sitting. She was of average height
and she wore a mustard yellow, knitted sweater over a white, button-up shirt,
who’s top two buttons were undone making the collar lay somewhat crooked around
her neck. Out from under a grey, hand-me-down pencil skirt came two stocky legs
covered in nothing but a thin layer of nylon stockings and on her rather small
feet she wore flat, brown, leather shoes with a discreet, but tasteful pattern
that brought some class to the rest of her attire. She reached Severus’ table
and put the straight, brown hair that had fallen over her right eye behind her
ear and drew her small, but plum lips into a welcoming smile.
“Would you like some refreshments, sir?”
He cast a quick look at her and upped his scowling in the hope it would scare
her off, but no such luck.
“We’ve a range of warm and cold drinks and some sandwiches and cakes if you’re
hungry.”
If he’d wanted anything, he thought to himself, he would have gone up and
asked, and so kept his glower in place, but when she didn’t leave after a few
seconds he reluctantly answered.
“No, thank you.”
The lady nodded, but didn’t give up on him.
“Then perhaps I could help you find some books you might like, as you can see
we’ve a vast collection of…”
“I’m just here to meet someone,” He stopped her. “But they’re late and I must
get back to work.”
He disliked being pestered by eager shopkeepers and so deliberately didn’t
offer a farewell as he got up to leave, but the woman wasn’t about to let him
off the hook that easily and so kept hassling him with conversation.
“In that attire?” She mused as the looked him up and down. “Where in the world
do you work?”
Severus glared at her. Not only did she try and push him into buying something,
she had the cheek to insult him as well. He was about to tell her off when the
bell at the front door rang. In came two people. The first, a large, burly man
with dark hair and a big beard, and after him a scrawny, young girl with
unruly, black hair to just below her jawline and black eyes that swiped over
the shop and landed on Severus. The beefy one looked over the shop as well,
said something to the girl in a hushed voice and turned to leave. The girl hit
him lightly in the arm and pointed at Severus and said, loudly enough for him
to hear:
“Don’t be daft, Mathias, that’s obviously him.”
And then started towards where he was standing. Severus cursed the shopkeeper
for having held him up long enough for his company to arrive and in doing so
kept him from eluding his daunting task.
“Looks like your friends have arrived, let me know if you need anything.”
The lady smiled and touched his arm lightly. Severus flinched at the unexpected
contact and wanted to tell her off again, but the woman had already left and
the bantam, young lady took her place. She reached out her hand and introduced
herself.
“Hello, I’m Anna Henrietta, and this” she turned and gestured to the hulking
man that had also begun to make his way towards them. “Is Mathias. Pleased to
meet you.”
Severus ignored her outreached hand and instead looked right over her head and
answered sourly.
“You’re late.”
The girl lowered her hand, realizing he wasn’t going to shake it.
“Got caught up in traffic and took a while to find this place.” She shrugged
and went to sit down.
Severus fought the urge to just leave then and there. First they were almost
half an hour late and then this girl had the gall to sit down, as if he was to
take even another minute more out of his day to loiter around this lousy shop.
No, he wasn’t about to take longer with this than he had to.
“I’m afraid there’s no time to sit around, miss. We’ve a lot to do and not much
time to do it.”
But the girl didn’t seem keen on leaving just yet and challenged him.
“What’s the hurry? I’m sure the shops won’t go anywhere, and it’s only just
passed noon, they can’t be closing for some hours yet, we have time. And I… no
we have a lot of questions. Mr. Dumbledore didn’t tell us much at all the first
time, you see.”
Severus cursed the headmaster for putting him up to this and took it out on
Anna, pierced her with a glare so vicious it would have made any normal person
cower, but she just looked straight back at him and nodded to a chair on the
other side of the table. Mathias had now come up on the left side of Severus,
but at least he didn’t offer up his hand as a greeting, just nodded and kept
standing, as if he also didn’t want to spend longer here than he had to.
“If you’ve questions you can ask them on the way, this is hardly a suited place
to discuss the matter.”
But still the girl didn’t budge.
“Why ever not? The place is empty except for the waitress. And unless you feel
like shouting, I doubt she’ll hear us clear across the room and over the
radio.”
She cocked an eyebrow at him and nodded to the chair once more.
He gritted his teeth and fought off the intense urge to put some horrid jinx on
the infernal juvenile, but sat down as his demeanor seemed to have no effect on
her and he realized he’d be home a lot quicker if he answered her questions.
Mathias followed suit and sat down in a chair next to Anna, who seemed rather
pleased with herself.
“Now, what would you like to know?” Severus said in a voice dripping with
malice.
“Why don’t you tell us a bit about yourself for starters. Like your name and
what you do at Hogwarts.”
“I’m afraid I don’t see the relevance. I’m here to help you buy your
paraphernalia, not indulge you with the story of my life.” He drawled, but Anna
kept pressing him.
“A task I can see you’re most excited about, but I’m afraid Mathias and I like
to know who we’re dealing with, seeing as Mr. Dumbledore, whom we thought would
do us the honor, must be too busy.”
Severus wanted to strangle her, but kept his cool and answered shortly and
straight to the point.
“Severus Snape. Potions master.”
“Potions?” Anna kept prodding him.
“Yesss.” He hissed.
“So you make sleeping concoctions? Or medicine?”
“Or poisons.” He shot back, hoping to knock her off balance, but she only
nodded slowly and whispered to herself.
“Fascinating.”
He was sure she was taunting him and made a mental note to relieve whatever
house she ended up in of several points until she learned to watch herself
around him.
Anna kicked her shoes off and drew her legs up into the chair, wriggling around
until she found a comfortable position and continued her interrogation.
“Why is the wizarding world a secret? Is it because of the witch trials?”
Severus snorted.
“Yes, in part. Though the hunts did see to the capture and execution of a few
witches and wizards, mostly they only served to kill off unlucky muggles who
got caught up in the hysteria.”
“What about wands, why are they necessary if you can perform magic without
them?”
“You can indeed perform some magic without a wand, but you need it to focus and
magnify it so you can perform greater feats. In short, you won’t get very far
without one.”
“How many witches and wizards are there in the world? Are they everywhere, or
only here in England?”
Severus sighed and leaned back in his chair, this was going to take a while.
They sat in the bookshop for the better part of an hour whilst Anna bombarded
Severus with her questions and he answered as shortly and to the point as he
could. At one point the waitress came over again and once more asked if she
could bring them some refreshments. Anna and Mathias ordered a cup of tea each
and Anna a piece of cheesecake as well, and when the waitress turned to Severus
he told her he hadn’t brought any money so as to keep her from asking him
again. But Anna halted the waitress and offered to pay for whatever Severus
might want, and he, being both hungry and vindictive, ordered for well over 50
pounds. He was sure he wouldn’t finish half of it, but he wanted to embarrass
the little witch by making her haggle with him, but she, against Mathias’ very
vocal protests and Severus’ great frustration, paid for the whole lot without
batting an eye.
They sat in silence as the waitress brought over two cups of tea and a
cheesecake for Anna and Mathias and one cup of tea, one cup of coffee, two
sandwiches, a bowl of ‘todays homemade soup’, a slice of carrot cake, six
scones with jam, one glass of wine and a bowl of biscuits for Severus. She
tried not to laugh, but as she put the final piece of Severus’ order down on
the table, and looked over it all to see if she’d missed anything, a tiny
giggle escaped her and she hurried away. Anna however did not put a lid on her
amusement and proudly wore a grin so wide it threatened to split her face in
half. Rarely did Severus Snape happen upon a person who could make him feel
this ridiculous, but her she was. And a future student at that. He didn’t let
his humiliation show, but he felt it dearly, and swore to repay it in kind
during their next seven years together.
They drank their tea and ate their food as Anna asked some more trivial
questions, before the conversation took a turn for the serious. Mathias, who
had been silent for most of the exchange, finally spoke up.
“Is it possible to read minds?”
He wore a mask of steel, clearly as fond of Severus as Severus was of him.
“Mind reading is a very naive way to look at it, but yes, it is possible to
penetrate and navigate through the layers of a persons mind. It’s called
legilimency, and it’s a very difficult skill to acquire and master to a point
where it becomes useful. A very small percentage of witches and wizards become
skilled legilimens, most avoid the subject entirely.”
At this Mathias squinted and Severus could hear his voice becoming strained.
“What about mind control?”
Severus sneered, but answered the question all the same.
“Also a callow way of looking at it, but yes, it is possible to influence
someones mind or even bend someone to your own will. This could be achieved by
use of legilimency or, as an extreme measure, by use of theimperius curse,
which leaves the person it’s cast on with no choice but to obey the casters
command. However the use of this spell is strictly forbidden and anyone caught
making use of it will have their wand snapped and suffer expulsion from the
magical society.”
Mathias looked at Anna. They exchanged some heated looks, before Anna shook her
head slightly and Mathias took a deep breath before asking another question.
“Is Dumbledore a legilimens?”
Severus, who’d taken notice of the man’s reaction to his answers about mind
reading and -control, and also now heard the uncertainty in Mathias’ voice,
enjoyed this sudden shift in power and jumped at the opportunity further
increase the man’s unease.
“He is. He and I are both skilled in the art, not needing a wand or an
incantation to perform it.”
The jab worked exactly they way he had hoped as Mathias’ eyes widened before
closing to an even tinier slit than before and he clenched his fists so hard
his knuckles turned white. Severus’ moment of silent triumph didn’t last for
long though, as Anna asked, or rather challenged, him to read her mind. He
smirked and made eye contact as he started perusing her thoughts and memories,
but all he met was a blank wall. He increased the intensity of his invasion,
but only caught a few glimpses; a word here and an image there, but none of it
made sense to him. Due to his own aversion for admitting failure he was forced
to admit to her having a particular aptitude for occlumency, and through his
dislike of the girl he was indeed really rather impressed, but did not say any
of this out loud.
“So? You gettin’ anything?” She asked, the pert grin back on her face.
Severus’ annoyance also returned from it’s momentary absence and he sat up in
his chair so as to signal the conversation was coming to an end.
“No, as it happens it is frowned upon to use this branch of magic on a student
and an unprepared subject, and I am here simply to assist you in buying your
things for the coming school year. A task I’d say we have put off for quite
long enough. If this concludes your list questions, we should get going.”
“Of course.” Anna said and gave him an innocent smile. “Just one more thing…”
Severus couldn’t help from groaning audibly as he sank back into his seat, but
didn’t object as she’d promised this be the last one.
“Are witches and wizards more impervious to physical harm?”
“No.” Severus stated bluntly. “But we can heal most non-magical afflictions in
minutes.”
“But do you heal more quickly?”
“I thought this was your last question, Miss Anna.”
“It is, I’m just continuing on the strand of the original question.”
Severus put a hand to his head, but answered the question.
“No, not by ourselves, we need potions or spells to speed up the process.”
Severus sat up in his chair again, this time fully intending to leave, with or
without them.
“That’s odd. You see, I was in an accident the other day where I, uh, fell out
of a speeding car, something that should have killed me. But I was able to get
back up and walk all the way home. And came away from it with just some sore
muscles and a sprained wrist.”
“And a concussion.” Mathias butted in.
She held up the bandaged arm that Severus only now noticed. He was about to
tell her that it had been luck, not magic, when she added:
“Also, my injuries have always healed quicker than they do for most others.”
Severus dismissed this as her tooting her own horn, and told her that natural
heeling ability was not part of any witch or wizards repertoire, and got up,
signaling it was time to leave.
Anna kept good on her promise to come quietly and they left the bookshop,
leaving the waitress to clean up the table where Severus had left most of his
order untouched, but not before she’d come around the counter to show them to
the door, thanking them for the visit and wishing them welcome back. As she
said the last part she looked directly at Severus and smiled sweetly. He did
not return the sentiment. In fact he ignored it all together and they went out
the door and onto the now busy street.
===============================================================================
 
As they left the bookshop Anna’s spirits were high. She was quite aware she’d
not got off to the best start with this Mr. Snape, but he had cooperated and,
for the most part, satisfied her curiosity. She’d also enjoyed teasing him. No
doubt was he used to not being challenged, but he also reminded Anna of some of
the tutors she’d had through the years that had enjoyed tormenting her a tad
bit too much and it felt good to finally give some retribution. Though despite
this she didn’t dislike the man. Sure, he could do with a drop of humor and a
pinch of compassion, but she’d not once gotten a bad feeling about him. If
anything she’d been intrigued. As had been the case with Dumbledore, she’d not
been able to read Snape like she did other people, but instead of a labyrinth,
what Snape had greeted her with was a solid wall. And when Anna met with a
challenge she rarely let it pass her by.
Snape earned them quite a few curious looks from the passers by out in the
street as his big, black cloak bellowed behind him, in part due to the day
being a windy one, but mostly because of how rapidly he marched forward.
Mathias managed to keep up by taking longer strides, but Anna, who had
substantially shorter legs than the two grown men, had to jog alongside them.
It was no trouble to her though as she was in good shape and her stamina hadn’t
dwindled at all by the time Snape slowed down and brought them to a halt
outside an old, run down pub with a creaking sign that read ‘The Leaky
Cauldron’. It took a while for Anna to notice, but when she did she snorted,
but didn’t say anything, though she thought to herself that these people really
did live up to their stereotype quite vividly.
Severus opened the door and stepped in, and Mathias, who’d been standing there
puzzled, wondering why they’d suddenly stopped only then seemed to notice the
building in front of him. He looked confused at Anna and she smiled and
shrugged at him before she winked and followed Snape into the watering hole.

As they entered they were met by quite a different atmosphere than the one out
on the street. The room was dimly lit, and most of the two dozen tables were
occupied by strange looking characters of every size, shape and color.
In the far corner, a group of dark clad, shabby men sat hunched over a round
table, large mugs in hand, and stood in sharp contrast to their female
companion, who was dressed in exquisite and overly showy clothes. She had a hat
with feathers so big they reached almost up to the ceiling, and she sat with
her legs crossed as she curled her wine red lips around the cord of an ornate
water pipe, that stood placed at the center of the table, and puffed a few
times before blowing the smoke into the air. At the tables alongside the east
wall sat several people. They were not curious in and of themselves, and not
engaged in any dodgy activities that Anna could see, but somehow they had
managed to arrange themselves so that the line started with the tallest and
ended with the shortest. On the table nearest the entrance sat three women that
looked, sounded and wore the exact same, and from what Anna could make out of
their conversation they were chatting idly about their brother, whom Anna then
offered a quiet thought of sympathy; the poor man. Apart from a few other odds
and ends, most of the people in the dingy pub looked fairly normal, by
wizarding standards at least. Or so Anna thought. She had in fact only ever
encountered two of the kind, and judging from her experience she knew one
thing: robes and cloaks were all the rage.
By the time Anna and Mathias had finished ogling their surroundings, Snape had
gone, where to they did not know. Anna cast an eye around to see if she could
spot him, but Mathias seemed not to give a rats ass about the man and went over
to the counter to check out the menu, obviously in need of a drink in the light
of resent events. Mathias was a big fellow, but nothing compared to the man he
had chosen to stand besides. On Mathias’ right side stood a humongous man and
rested his equally massive arm on the dirty wooden surface of the counter as he
gripped in his hand the largest mug available in the establishment, but which
was made to look rather humble in his hand, and seemed to be deeply immersed in
a conversation with an elderly witch, who in turn sported a modest glass of
some golden-yellowy liquid. The gargantuan man had his back turned to Mathias
and so hadn’t noticed he’d come up behind him, so when his companion told him
something that must have been absolutely hilarious he banged his fist down on
the counter just as Mathias was reaching for the beverage chart. Anna heard an
audible ‘crack’ closely followed by Mathias’ deafening roar as he jerked his
arm back and followed up with a colorful sermon of swear words. The big fellow
turned around confused, as did everyone else in the establishment, and Anna ran
over to check on Mathias’ arm. She pressed and prodded at it and as she’d
suspected it had been broken, and just as she was about to announce it Snape
made his reappearance.
“What’s taking you so long, didn’t I ask you to follow me?”
“Actually, no, you didn’t. You just vanished.”
Snape opened his mouth to answer, but Anna cut him off.
“And now we need to see to Mathias’ arm, is there a clinic nearby?”
Before Snape got the chance to ask what had happened, the giant spoke up.
“So sorry, Profess’r, ‘twas an accident. Dinnae see ‘im ‘ere, yeh see, he with
yous?*”
Snape seemed torn between whether to congratulate the man or accost him, and
settled on a silky remark that could be interpreted either way.
“I’m sure you didn’t, Hagrid, and yes, he’s with me.”
He said the last part as if the very idea of it was ridiculous. The corner of
his mouth twitched slightly and he asked, without looking:
“Is it broken?”
“Yes.” Anna answered coldly, fixing Snape with a glare that could kill. “Is
there a clinic nearby?” She repeated.
As little effect as Snape’s demeanor had on Anna, in turn hers neither affected
him, and he said, quite smugly:
“That will hardly be necessary.”
Mathias jerked forward, his patience brought to an end, but Anna put her hands
on his chest and held him back with all her might, not wanting to start a
fight.
“As I informed you earlier, magic can deal with these sort of injuries in
minutes.” Snape continued.
He waved his hand nonchalantly and pulled a small vial from the inside of his
coat.
“Drink this.”
He handed the vial to Mathias, who just looked at him with a mixture of
distrust and anger.
“I’m not drinking that.” He stated bluntly as he took Anna by the arm and
turned to leave, but she resisted him.
“It’s not poison.” Snape said, bored. “At most you’ll feel a funny tingle as
your bones repair themselves.”
Anna reached out and snapped the vial from Snape’s hand as Mathias turned on
his heel and started making for the exit without her, but she caught up and
blocked his way. He dragged her over to a corner by the door and started
haranguing her in a hushed voice.
“I came with you Anna, I gave it a go. I sat through that whole bloody
conversation in the bookshop, as he was insulting and threatening us…”
“He didn’t threaten us.” Anna shot in, but he ignored her.
“… and I didn’t object when he started leading us off somewhere without telling
us where we were going…”
“Because it wouldn’t have made a difference if he did.” She interrupted again.
“… And I was ready to keep going after I saw this place full of freaks…”
This time Anna didn’t say anything, but cocked her head to the side and gave
him an evil eye as if to tell him he’d gone too far.
“… But now that brute broke my arm with a single blow, and all this man does is
hand me a vial of who knows what, telling me to get over it!”
“If he wanted to poison you, Mathias, surely he’d wait for a more opportune
moment with less witnesses to account for this evil deed.” She held up the vial
to him and pursed her lips. “Just drink it so we can get on with our business.”
“No, I won’t do it!”
He pushed passed her, but she threw herself in front of the door so that he
couldn’t open it.
“Please, Mathias, for me.”
She changed her tactics and put up two, large puppy-dog eyes. He gave her a
dangerous look and wheezed:
“Anna…”
But she didn’t give up, just wrinkled her forehead and pushed her lower lip
into a pout. They stared at each other intently for about ten seconds before
Mathias huffed aggressively and seized the tiny bottle out of her hand.
“Urgh, fine.” He said and popped the cork off. “But if I sprout a second head
it’s on you.”
He downed the contents in one fell swoop, clucked his tongue and made a grimace
as the taste didn’t agree with him. They started to make their way back to
where Snape now stood leaned against the counter, looking as if this was the
single most boring point of his whole life, but halfway there Mathias doubled
over and shouted:
“Arrghh, what the devil!”
Anna rushed to his side and worriedly put a hand on his back before she whirred
on Snape, asking him what the hell he’d done.
“I warned he might feel it.” He said and smiled slyly.
“A tingle! Nothing more than a funny tingle, you said!”
Mathias’ face was still drawn in a painful grimace, but he seemed to get a grip
on it as he straightened up and made for Snape with the full intention of
retaliating. This time Anna did not try and stop him as she would most like to
see the man get his comeuppance. But before he had the chance to wipe the smug
smile of his face the man who’d broken his arm in the first place stepped
between them.
“Now, now, ‘eres no need fer fisticuffs, ‘twas my fault, all of it. The
profess’r were on’y tryin’ ter help.”
Mathias tried to go around him, but the man was so big he only had to take one
step to the side to make up for three of Mathias’ and so Mathias stopped and
glared at him, probably working out whether he could take down this guy as
well, but naturally concluded that’d be stupid considering he was one arm
short. The giant wrung his hands sheepishly and, looking for something to say,
but came up with nothing. Anna came up to Mathias’ side and asked him how he
was feeling.
“I’d feel a lot better if I could get my hands on that weasel.” He puffed.
“I meant your arm.” Anna said. “Is it better?”
He waited a bit, obviously not wanting to admit the potion had worked, but in
the end uttered a bitter:
“Yeah.”
“The profess’r knows ‘is potions.” The big man beamed, obviously thinking the
worst had passed. “Sorry again ‘bou’ yer arm. Buy yeh a drink fer yer ‘ealth?”
But before Mathias had a chance to accept or decline the offer, Snape stepped
out from behind the man.
“I’m afraid we’re in a hurry, Hagrid. This girl…” He said and gestured lazily
to Anna. “Has to buy her things for the coming school year.”
“Oh, so yer a student are yeh?” The man stomped over to Anna, almost knocking
Mathias over in the process, and reached out his hand to introduce himself.
“Rubeus Hagrid, I am. Gamekeeper a’ Hogwarts. Pleasure to be meetin’ yeh.”
Anna couldn’t help but smile. Hagrid reminded her of a dog, a great dane or
saint bernard perhaps, jumping on to his owners lap, not realizing he’s not a
puppy anymore. She knew instictively there wasn’t a mean bone in all of the
mans massive body and so put forth her own hand, that reached about a third of
the way into his, and made her own introductions.
“Anna Henrietta. And this…” She said and gestured towards Mathias. “…Is my
guardian, Mathias.”
Hagrid jumped from her and on to Mathias, who looked suitably intimidated and
like he’d rather face off with a raging bull than this colossus, and grabbed
his arm, the same one he’d just broken, and shook him silly.
“There’ll be plenty of time for you to chat at school.” Snape interrupted
icily. “Now, if you’d follow me.”
Hagrid let go of a now rather disheveled Mathias, who for the first time did as
Snape asked without resisting, and turned to look them all over a final time
before saying his goodbyes.
“Good luck ter yeh then. I’ll be ‘ere fer a few ‘ours more if yeh wanta stop by
fer a chat af’er yer done shoppin’.”
Anna and Mathias, too, said their goodbyes, whilst Snape remained silent as he
waited for them to come along.
Chapter End Notes
     *I’ll write Hagrid’s dialect the way I’ve always imagined him
     speaking, not necessarily according to canon. As I’ve said before,
     I’m not native to English, so dialects are even harder, but if enough
     of ’yous’ tell me it isn’t working, or that it’s bothering you, I’ll
     change it and just write it all in standard English, leaving you to
     interpret the vocalization.
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