Purple and Books
Falling. Or was it flying? Was there really a difference? A scared voice in the disance calls out. "Ani! Please... Hold on. Ok ok, just breath for me... NO, NO NO!..... don't you dare Aniara, don't you... hold on.... Yes yes that's it, look at me, just look at me and breath. Good good...... NO!!!!!..... DAMNIT!!!!!..... please work, please work...... Merlin please just.... Ani?!.... Aniara!!!!!!! please open your eyes.... please open........................................ Bear?"
Aniara opened her eyes. Her heart was beating fast. She quickly scanned her surrounding wondering where the danger was coming from. Why was she so scared? Had she been running from something in her dream?
Wait, what had she been dreaming about? And was she on her bed? How did she get here? She had been sure she had fallen asleep on her closet floor crying. But now she was curled up on her side in her blankets and looking directly at her bedroom door.
She took in a deep breath before pushing off her blankets and untangling them from her legs. Rubbing her face, she found it wasn't puffy like it was last night. She streatched her arms over her head and glanced around her room. There was dark hardwood floors covered with lots of matching dark purple rugs that were perfectly placed under her furniture. There were large bookshelves lining most of the walls that were stuffed full of all kinds of books, both wizard and muggle. In one corner of her room was a plush reading nook that had a multicolored light for different times of day, and a special chair that could be shifted to fit her reading comfort needs that was covered in multiple purple pillows. On the opposite side of the room, her mahogany vanity sat up against the wall inbetween the door of her closet and the door that connected her room to her brother's. Her full size four poster bed sat in the middle of the back wall of her room opposite her largest bookshelf. It had dark purple toole curtains with lots of gold glittery star flecks in it, and light purple silk sheets. It was the only large bit of light purple that existed in her room. Her mother had refused to let everything in her daughter's room be a slightly different dark shade of purple so Aniara agreed to have different sets of light purple sheets and some light purple accent decor up on her wall to "offest" all the dark purple. But it was mainly to appease the matriarch.
Purple was her color. If you were to ask anyone to discribe Aniara they would say, after the words sweet and very blonde, dark purple and books. But that was all she really had. Being confinded to her family home for the last four years, there wasn't much else for her to do or become. She had the freedom to do as she liked with her room, and the freedom to roam the manor and the manor grounds (provided there were no guests over or any socialite parties happening). But contact with other people was basically none.
Her parents were wonderful, always doting on her and they did their best not to make her feel inferior, but their best wasn't near perfect. She knew they kept their distance from her. Not because they didn't love her, but because they were not sure what to do with her. They had been raised to hate Muggles and muggleborns, so having a child with no discernable magic and thus labled a squib was new territory for them. Her Gran was a little trickier. She didn't outright say anything hurtful about her magic status, but she also kept to herself in her own wing of the manor to avoid having to interact much with her non-magical granddaughter.
The house elves were always amazing. They initially tried to do everything for her, trying to make her not feel abandonded just because she couldn't do magic. After three days of their constant "help" she had to finally use her Malfoy blood to comand them to stop and not treat her any different then they treated her brother. She hadn't liked using her authority over them, but they were driving her insane. Pip, of course, hadn't treated her any different. She continued to be a friend to the young witch and teach her all the skills she had been teaching her before that stupid label was placed on her.
Eleesa was a saving grace in it all. She was a year older but never treated Aniara like she was stupid or less than because of their age difference. They had been really close friends and stayed reletively close after Aniara got "sick." They wrote each other almost every day, which was changed to once a week once Eleesa started school last year. But she never pitied Aniara in her letters, never called her weak or fraile. She even tried to convince the Malfoys to let her still come over and spend time with Aniara, but her parents had admitily refused, saying Aniara was too weak to have visitors over. They also forbade her from telling Eleesa about her supposed abilities and the truth about her illness.
Aniara complied, but she hated that she couldn't talk to Eleesa like she used to.
But Scorpius had been her rock. He had been the one, true, constant support through everything. He used his allowance to buy her any books she wanted, even risked sneaking into a muggle book shop near the leaky cauldron to get more books for Aniara to fill her time with. Her brother and books became her lifeline. They entertained her mind, while her brother showed her the world outside. No matter how much they tried to convince their parents about Aniara's new abilities, they just wouldn't believe it. They had never heard such a thing and the twin must have been lying because Aniara was a squib. She couldn't perform any real magic.
The astral projection was a weird developement. A few months after the twins 7th birthday, just before her identity as a squib was confirmed, they were playing hide and seek throughtout the manor. She had found a hiding place inside a one of the reciving room's cloak wardrobe. It was one of her best hiding places yet as it took longer than 20 minutes for Ned to find her.
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After almost twenty minutes of hiding, Aniara started to get really realxed and she let her mind wander as she waited. She thought about her favorite books, which reminded her of going to Flourish and Blotts, and then she remembered that ice cream shop next to it and how her and Eleesa had gotten in trouble for spilling the ice cream all over their newly tailored dress robes. That had then reminded her about the time Scorpius kept complaining about Madame Maulkin constantly stabbing him with pins and how he would look like he had dragon pox later.
Thinking about the memory of her brother, she began to think about her brother in the present. She wondered where he was and started to tap into his feelings, worried he might have forgotten her or was starting to get worried about her. As she thought about him and tried to read his current feelings, she felt herself become almost weightless, like she was floating on her back in the water. She felt a pull in her gut like she was attached to a string and let the pull guide her floating mind. The pull got stronger and stronger before Aniara opened her eyes to find herself standing on the main staircase of the manor watching from behind as her brother decended them.
She looked around and wondered how she had gotten there. Had she apparated? She rememebered the side alongs she did with her parents felt different, more like a spinning sensation rather than the floating and pulling one she had just experienced. She started to decend down the steps and began laughing. Maybe she had discovered a new way to apparate?
"Hey Racky! Wait up!" She called as she began joyfully bouncing down the steps. Her brother stopped and turned around in surprise. He looked at Aniara and his eyes went wide in shock.
"How did you get there? Did you use magic to make yourself invisible and just follow me around everywhere while I looked for you? Not funny Ani!"
He crossed his arms and sat down on the stairs and began to pout.
"No I wasn't invisible! I just found my best hiding place yet. Then my mind started to run away as I waiting for you. Then POP! I was here. I think I learned a new way to apperate. It felt different from the side alongs."
She finished her hops down the steps to her brother and sat down on the step just above him.
"Not gonna tell where I was though. You will just have to try harder to find me next time."
She started to kick her feet out in front of her and giggle. Scorpius just stared at her and pouted in annoyance. Then his face began to slowly screw up in confusion.
"Why do you look funny?" He questioned, but not in a mocking tone.
"If I look funny then you must look funnier because we look almost the same, only I'm cuter!" Aniara replied thinking he was making fun of her. She smiled back at him and kept kicking her feet with joy.
"No, not like that Ani, you look..." he paused for a moment and tilted his head in thought, trying to find the right word to describe his sister. "Fuzzy. You look a photo that didn't come out right."
Aniara stopped kicking her feet and looked down at her body. She didn't feel fuzzy. She didn't look fuzzy either. She felt and looked like her normal self. But when she put her hands on either side of her on the stone step she felt it, or rather didn't feel it. The feeling of the steps under her fingertips didn't feel quite right. They didn't really feel much at all. She began frantically touching everything around to see if it was just the steps that felt that way. The bansiter didn't quite feel either, same with the frame of a portait on the wall above their heads. Her clothes felt fine though, along with her hair and skin.
"Ned can you feel this?" She said as she quickly reached for her brother. He flinched as her hands gripped onto his shoulder.
"Ow, of course I can feel that Aniara! Not so tight ok." Scorpius felt fine. So why did the everything else around her not feel?"
"Master Scorpius, beggin you pardon," Windle, one of their families oldest house elves spoke up from a few steps below the twins. He was a grumpier sort of elf but always tried to be kind to the children. "but who is you talkin to?"
Scorpius raised his eyebrows and just pointed back over his shoulder to his sister. "Uh, to Ani Windle. Who else would I be talking to? Betty the house ghost?"
The twins laughed but Windle just stared blankly at Aniara.
"No Master Scorpius. Beggin you pardon 'gain but Miss Aniara ain't there. No one there. Not no ghost or nofin."
Scorpius looked back at his sister and put his hand on her leg. He felt her there. And she felt his hand on her. Maybe Old Windle was just going blind or something.
"We should take you to the eye healer Windle, I think your eyes are getting worse. I'm right here." Aniara said before chuckling awakwardly.
But Windle didn't respond. He didn't even look at Aniara as she spoke. She got up off the step and started making her way towards the elf, but he made no sign that he saw her coming towards him. She stopped just in front of him and waved her hand in front of his face. "If you are ignoring me as a prank Windle, it isn't very funny."
He still didn't respond to her. Ani went to poke the elf on the nose to try and get his attention, but she was surprise to find her hand pass right through the elf's nose and keep going towards the back of his head.
Scorpius gasped at the scene while Aniara shrieked. How had her hand done that? She pulled it away from the elf and squeezed her eyes shut, wishing that whatever was happening would stop.
She felt herself floating again, no this time it felt more like falling. Her body fell away as the string that pulled her earlier went slack. She felt her head land back against something solid. Her back and bottom followed and she noticed it. The hard planes against her body were feeling normal. They were actually feeling again.
She opened her eyes to find everything around her dark. There was some fabic falling over her face and wooden walls surrounding her. She was still in the cloak wardrobe of the receiving room she had hid in earlier. Her heart was racing and she could tell Scorpius' heart was beating hard too. She felt his fear as well. She then started to hear faint shouting coming from outside and she bolted out from her hiding place and out of the receiving room.
It was Scorpius. He was calling out her name and he sounded more worried then she had ever heard him.
She rushed down the hall and colided with him as he was turning the corner from the direction of the main stairs.
"Ani! What? Where did you go? Your hand went through Windle and then you just disapeared." He was holding her shoulders and looking her over, "You aren't fuzzy anymore."
"I'm not?" Aniara said out of breath. She started to feel the wall next to them and it felt normal. "I can feel the wall again. It was like I almost couldn't before."
"Mistress Aniara, seems Master Scorpius found ya. Glad of it. Worried me for a moment 'e did. But alls well," and with that the old house elf apparated away to another part of the house.
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Aniara let her hands drop from her stretch and swung her legs over the side of her bed. That's when she noticed the food tray that was ontop of her nightstand. She could smell the fresh porridge and freshly picked peaches underneight the silver tray cover.
Pip.
That was how she got into her bed last night. That elf must have found her and levitated her to it. What would she do without that elf? Just as that thought had entered her mind she heard a slight pop and looked over to find the elf sitting next to her on the bed.
"How's Miss this morning? Pip tried to wake you to eat some food last night. You missed dinner."
"Yeah, I know," She removed the lid of the tray and ate a peach slice. "Last night was..." she sighed and stopped chewing for a second, letting some of the juice from the peach slide down her throat, "It was more that I was expecting." She finished chewing the peach slice and began slowly eating the rest of her breakfast.
She felt Pip's hand rest on her arm in comfort and let a left over tear from last night fall down her cheek. Aniara wasn't sure what to tell Pip. She was sure that Pip would believe what had happened, but did Aniara believe it herself? She wasn't so sure. But Pip didn't pressure her to speak or ask any quetions. The elf could always somehow tell what the twins needed. Maybe it was some part of her elf magic or maybe because she just knew them both so well. The two just sat in silence for a while as Aniara ate her breakfast slowly. It was a weekend so there wasn't much happening. Not that much happened for Ani any other day anyway.
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"Timestables say we don't have DADA until tuesday which gives me an extra day to prepare for whatever is going to happen in that class. James says the weirdness and hype dies down after a few days. And it's not like its Dad's first year teaching. He has the first day questions all prepped so it doesn't distract from class too much."
"Your dad already has questions for us. On the first day?" Scorpius was exhausted this morning. He had gotten plenty of sleep, the large welcome feast made sure of that. It was all the excitement about the events of yesterday: becoming friends with Al, the boat ride, the hatstall, the feast, exploring the common room until a female prefect made the two of them go to bed.
"No, other way around. The pure and half bloods that have learned about him since birth but never met him, and the muggleborns that got really excited to learn everything about our world and only know what some of the books say about him. They all want to spend most of the first day of class just pestering dad with questions about his life and the war and all that."
Scorpius shook his head. He was never really a morning person, and his excited exhaustion wasn't helping, but his new friend had way too much energy in the morning and was rambling on about anything and everything. He had been talking about classes and what to expect, then called Rose over to their table to compare timestables. The two of them sat across from him as they all ate their breakfast. Rose was a little more on Scorpius' side in the morning and decided to have breakfast with the two of them instead of making her way to the Ravenclaw table to eat. Once she had sat down she decided she was too tired to move again to sit anywhere else.
"Ugh," she groaned after Al's answer, "The girl in the bed next to mine wouldn't stop asking questions. Once she heard my last name she had to know everything about my dad and his quidditch stats. She wants to try out for the team this year and is convinced she will make it. I kinda hope she does so she is too distracted with practice to keep me up all night again with her endless questions.
"Merlin, did you two get any sleep?" Al asked when he finally noticed her head almost falling into her plate of food and Scorpius' just hovering inches above his own.
"I finally just had to pretend like I fell asleep to her rambling questions to get her to shut up." Was Rose's answer while Scorpius just nodded his head, but wasn't convinced of his own answer. Had he been anymore awake he would have noticed a slight pit in his stomach like was forgetting something, or someone or like something was missing. But he didn't notice it.
"Oh Godrick! Am I friends with non morning people? Well this has just put a dampen on my time at school." Al chuckled and continued to go over their timestables for a 4th time. Soon Scorpius' head felt weightless and he felt himself start to fall back to sleep. He heard some voices around them but couldn't make out any words to decern who was talking. He just let himself fall asleep.
"Ned." Aniara spoke in a soft and soothing voice, "Ned it's ok. Everything is ok now." Her voice was getting fainter with every word. Scorpius tried to hold onto it but it just kept slipping away. Then the voice started to morph and shift from his sister's to someone else's "Cori... Cor... Scorpius... Scorpius..."
"Scorpius!" His head jolted awake at the sound of his name. He looked up to find Al looking at him with concern. Rose had her hand under her chin and looked a little more awake than she had been before. There was also another body standing behind his two new friends. He looked up in shock as he saw the face of the proud father from last night.
The Boy Who Lived Again had always intimidated Scorpius. No matter how much he had heard about how nice Mr. Potter was, the two scars on his face and his imense reputation had always made Scorpius feel like he wasn't as nice as everyone was making him out to be. Or maybe it was simply because of the stories his father had told him and his sister about the man.
"Never underestimate a nice person kids. And if you meet someone who is nice, always try to stay on their good side. Provoking nice people only leads to pain." Their Dad had said when the twins had gotten up the courage to ask him about the series of scars on his chest.
But when Scorpius looked up into the face of Harry Potter, he locked eyes with the man and something shifted. There wasn't anger or malice in his eyes and no sneer on his lips. Just the face of a concerned but loving man. It was almost a softer verson of Scorpius' father's face, with his father having more stern aristocratic lines than Potter had.
"Hello Mr. Malfoy. I see you might need to use the day to catch up on some sleep." Professor Potter said to him in a calm voice.
Scorpius got nervous for a second when he remembered he had just fallen asleep at the breakfast table with his head over his food. He felt his face to whipe off any food but felt it was clean.
"Don't worry," Potter started when he saw Scorpius' worry, "I've caught many a student falling asleep at tables, so I'm quick to levitate their heads for them so they don't hurt their head or fall into food."
"Thank you Professor." Scorpius said, shocked to find his father's childhood enemy treating him with care.
"No need for that. Potter is just fine. As long as you don't say it like your father did. He always had this tone in his voice when he said it that... oh it doesn't matter. I'm just glad to see Albus has made a new friend." The man clapped his son's shoulder softly and looked between the three of them before speaking again. "I will leave you kids to enjoy the rest of breakfast, I just came over to check on you three. I will see you two for class on Tuesday and Rose I will see you Monday. "
And with that Harry Potter walked away from their table and out through the double doors, presumably to his office.
Scorpius just stared after him as he walked away, shocked by how different the man was in person.
"I guess even our own friends are still prone to stairing huh?" Rose commented jokingly to Al. Scorpius looked back at them in confusion.
"Eh, he will get used to it, like they all do."
Scorpius shook his head, "No its not like that, I mean-"
"Cor, its fine. I'm used to it. The joys of having a famous dad."
"No I mean," Scorpius rubbed his face and chuckled awkwardly, "He wasn't what I expected. To be honest," he let out a breath and smiled at his friends, "your dad's always intimidated me. I'm just glad to know he is actually as nice as people say."
"Wait till he grounds you." Al chuckled back before all three of them were laughing, "Don't even get me started on my mom! Merlin can that woman yell!"