House elf
Anne woke up pinned to her bedsheets in sweat. She had had the same dream again. The same nightmare. Every night for the past month she had had the same nightmare. Quirrell, the stone, but this time Harry died!
“Harry! Harry!!!!” she screamed.
“Woah! Woah! Calm down there, kid! You’re fine, Harry’s fine, everybody’s fine!” Sirius said trying to calm her down.
“Nightmares again?” asked Remus from the doorway where he stood in his pajamas. Sirius nodded nervously.
“Come here sweetheart!” said Remus sitting down on her bed. “Come on its alright,” Remus dried the tears off of her face. “Do you want to tell me about it, sweetheart?”
Anne nodded uncertainly. “It was Quirrell, but this time he got the stone, and Voldemort came back to life, and then….”
“What is it kid?” asked Sirius.
“He killed Harry!” she struggled.
“Anne darling, Harry is in his bed, fast asleep, he couldn’t be safer!” Remus reassured her in a gentle tone.
“Do you want me to tuck you back in then?” Remus asked. Anne nodded.
Sirius left the room to go back to sleep as Remus tucked Anne in.
“Uncle Remus?” Anne asked in barely above a whisper.
Remus nodded.
“Can you stay for a bit? Just till I fall asleep?”
“Of course, I can dear!” Remus kissed her on the top of the head and settled down into a chair.
When Anne woke up the next morning, she still remembered the nightmare. She could never forget it. She had relived the worst night of her life every night in her sleep since the night in the chamber.
“Ok midgets!” called Sirius over the breakfast table. “We need you two to get out of here, we need to get ready for your party tomorrow.”
“Come back in time for dinner please!” added Remus.
And so Anne went to go get dressed for the day. It was a warm day as it was late July. She pulled on a pair of denim shorts and a light green t-shirt. She put in her hair ribbons which changed to a pale green to match her shirt.
Harry was going around to Neville’s with Ron for Neville’s birthday. Anne was going to go around to Luna’s for the day. She had already spent quite a bit of time at Luna's this holiday, but she knew that she was going to be going to the Scamander’s for a fortnight before school started.
Anne started off down the path to her friend’s house. Anne had made so many friends in the last year, but she would always find time for Luna. Her first-ever friend.
“Anne!!!” screamed Luna as she came charging out of the house her hair flying all over the place.
“Hi Luna!” she said as Luna pulled her into a hug. “Calm down you only saw me yesterday!!”
“Oh yes I know that, but I’m making up for all the time I didn’t see you last year!”
“Anne!” called Mr. Lovegood. “How would you like a cup of tea?”
“Yes please, Mr Lovegood!!” Anne exclaimed.
Once Mr. Lovegood had poured tea for everyone and they were all sat down in the sitting room, Mr. Lovegood looked at Anne curiously.
“Is there something troubling you child?” he asked with affection.
“Its nothing” Anne stammered, “it's just some bad dreams….”
“Ah! Dreams, such wonderful things. But sometimes also so terrible!”
Anne merely nodded.
“What are you two up to today?” asked Mr. Lovegood as they finished their tea.
“Well it's such a nice day I want to spend it outside!” exclaimed Luna.
“Could you two get some plimpies from the stream? I could cook them for dinner!”
“Of course, Daddy!” said Luna skipping off to find the baskets and jars for the plimpies.
Anne and Luna spent the day by the brook, once they had enough plimpies they started making crowns out of the wildflowers on the banks.
“Are there any nargles at Hogwarts?” Luna asked her.
“Not that I have noticed”
“What about Crumple Horned Snorcacks?”
“No. I think your father told those lived in Norway anyway didn’t he?” Anne replied.
“Oh, yes of course,” replied Luna absentmindedly “I remember now!”
“You looking forward to starting in September?”
“I think so I might miss Daddy” replied Luna dreamily, “and the gnomes might wonder where I've gone when I don’t go to talk to them anymore!”
“You’ll be ok Luna, you already know me and I know you’ll like Irwin and the others when you meet them tomorrow,” Anne told her. Remus and Sirius had invited the entirety of Harry and Anne’s friends to a party tomorrow. They were going to end up having to deal with about twenty kids who were all staying over and sleeping under the stars in sleeping bags.
Luna and Anne were making their crowns when Anne thought she could see a pair of green eyes watching them from the other bank. But when Anne looked again, they were gone. Deciding they were a trick if the light she decided to ignore them.
At five o’clock Anne hugged her friend Luna goodbye and rushed off home.
There was a full moon that night, and that was always a rough night for Remus.
“Hi Anne, good day?” Sirius asked.
Anne nodded. The kitchen table was full of food they had been preparing for the next day, homemade burgers and hot dogs, hand-cut chips, and crudités. It was all ready to be cooked the next day when everyone arrived.
Remus was sat at the kitchen table preparing a fruit salad, and he was starting to get shadows under his eyes.
“Remus let me do that,” said Anne gently taking the knife from her uncle.
“Thanks!” he told her.
“Remus I’m sorry that we are giving you all this trouble on the night of your transformation!”
“It’s alright Anne it’s not your fault,” Remus said tiredly. “I’m just sorry that I will be so tired for your birthday tomorrow!”
“It’s ok,” said Anne slicing apples. She would do anything to help her uncle with us transformation after all he’s done for her. She sometimes wished that she could do it for him.
When Harry returned from Neville’s, they all had a quick dinner before loading all the food for the party away into the fridge.
“Right go on you two!” Sirius said starting to shoo them both upstairs, “see you tomorrow!”
It was getting closer to sunset and Remus was looking worse by the minute. Remus was heading towards the basement and Sirius was going to check the wards had been put in place properly on the basement.
Anne knew that Sirius would sit up all night by the entrance to the basement, just in case there was anything wrong and Remus escaped.
Anne had just washed her hair and brushed it into her plaits. She found her brother waiting for her on her bed.
“Hey, sis!”
“Hi Harry,” Anne muttered tying her ribbons into her hair.
“You’ll never guess what happened at Neville’s today!”
But Anne never did find out what happened at Neville’s that day because at that second a house-elf popped into their room.
“Harry and Anne Potter!!” the elf squeaked.
“Who are you?” screamed Harry.
“What are you doing in my room?” screamed Anne.
“Dobby has come to warn Harry and Anne Potter not to return to Hogwarts this year!”
“What?” asked Harry.
“What are you talking about?” asked Anne.
“There is a terrible plot, terrible things are going to happen at Hogwarts school, you cannot return!” Dobby continued.
“Just a minute!” Anne faltered as she went out into the corridor.
“Sirius!” Anne called down the stairs.
“What?” He called up the stairs. “You know I’m busy with Remus!”
“Sirius there’s someone in my room!”
“Harry get the hell out of your sisters’ room! You have your own!”
“No there’s a house-elf!”
“What!”
“A house-elf, apparently he's called Dobby” Anne was still shouting over the stairs.
“Right. I’m coming up!” said Sirius as he started his way up the stairs.
“Now then what's this about a house-elf?” asked Sirius once he reached Anne's room.
The house-elf was now sat on Anne’s bed crying where Harry was trying to comfort him.
“Its ok Dobby just tell me what's happening!”
“I can’t sir, Dobby can’t!” Dobby wailed. “You must promise me that Mr and Miss Potter will not go back to school!”
“Dobby is it?” asked Sirius gently kneeling down to talk to him. “Look, I understand that you cant tell us, but Harry and Anne will be fine, Remus and I look after them, you don’t need to worry yourself about them. Now go back to your master wherever they are,” Sirius told him.
The elf nodded before clicking its fingers and disappearing.
“Well that was weird!” exclaimed Harry.
“You’re telling me!” continued Sirius before going back downstairs to Remus.
The next morning Anne was woken up by her brother bouncing up and down on her bed.
“Anne! Anne!” screamed Harry.
“Wake up it's our birthday!” he shouted dragging her windows open.
“I know that!” exclaimed Anne as she reached under her bed for Harry’s present. “Happy Birthday Harry!”
“Thanks, sis!” Harry said handing her his present.
“Wow! Cool!” Anne had gotten Harry a book on the world’s greatest seekers. Harry played seeker for the Gryffindor Quidditch team.
Harry had gotten his sister a book on Nicholas Flamel.
Sirius came into their room a few hours later. “Come on you two, it’s time for breakfast!”
Sirius had managed to get some sleep on the sofa, and he seemed to be bouncing with energy.
Harry started to charge towards the stairs where he could smell the breakfast cooking from the kitchen.
Anne followed her brother downstairs and sat down next to Remus who was drinking his first cup of tea.
“Hi, Remus! How are you?”
“I’ve been worse! Happy Birthday, Darling!” he said putting an arm around his goddaughter.
There was a full English breakfast that morning, so Anne had a few sausages and a piece of toast whilst the rest of them ate their fill.
“Bed Moony!” Sirius announced once Remus had finished eating. “You need to have some energy for the party later.”
Remus struggled his way up from the table and Anne helped her godfather up to his room. “See you later Uncle Remus,” Anne said from the doorway once Remus had gotten into bed.
The other three spent the day decorating the garden whilst Remus slept. They had to blow up the balloons, make the cake, set up the projector, and get out the sleeping bags.
The guests started arriving at six o’clock with their overnight bags. There was Fred, George, Ron, and Ginny Weasley, Neville, Luna, Seamus, and Dean the other two Gryffindor boys, Hermione, Michael, Terry, Anthony, Mandy, Lisa, Padma, Persephone, and Irwin.
It was a good thing it was a clear night because they were all going to be sleeping outside in the garden. Remus had woken up by the time that the guests arrived so even though he was looking tired he was able to join in with the party.
Sirius and Remus were manning the barbeque and Sirius, Anne, and Harry had been busy preparing food all afternoon. Everyone ate vast amounts of food followed by a massive cake, one half of the cake had chocolate frosting and the top half had strawberry.
Then it was time for presents. Mr. Weasley had clearly been doing some research into muggle children’s literature as Anne had received a set of three books in a series called The Worst Witch.
“Sorry Anne, dads kind of gone rogue on your gift this year,” said Ron trying to apologize.
“They look brilliant!” Anne laughed. “Thank you so much!”
Michael and Terry had again got her a huge amount of Honeydukes plain chocolate. They knew that chocolate helped when Anne wasn’t feeling well.
Lisa who was a muggle-born handed Anne a large box. The box was full of every kind of sweet imaginable. And the best part was none of them were trick sweets or blood flavored like wizarding sweets sometimes were.
Anne laughed when she opened Padma and Persephone’s present. They had made her a stuffed toy dog, but it didn’t have one head it had three!
“It's Fluffy!!!” she exclaimed. “It's brilliant!”
She received several books, a book from Anthony on Herbology, and a book from Mandy on the wizard Paracelsus.
She got yet another book from Luna but this one was different.
“I made this for you when you were away last year because I missed you so much. I thought you might have missed the flowers!” said Luna dreamily.
It was a book with wildflowers pressed into it. Luna had written description for all the flowers. On the first page in the book was written “To my best friend Anne, I hope every time you look through this book you’ll remember running through the meadows on a summer afternoon, all my love Luna”
“Thank you Luna!” said Anne pulling Luna into a hug, “I love it!”
Next was Irwin. “its only something small I’m afraid, I’ve got you something bigger but that goes with the presents you’re getting next week when you visit!”
He handed her two parcels. The first one was a tin of welsh cakes from Mrs. Scamander made with strawberries and white chocolate. The other was a pair of fingerless gloves in blue and bronze that Irwin had crocheted for her.
“I remember you complaining that your hands got cold but I know gloves can be a pain to pick things up with, this way your hands are warm but you can still do things,” Irwin explained.
“They’re wonderful, I love them” Anne enthused. Anne pulled Irwin into a hug much made Irwin blush.
Anne next unwrapped her presents from Sirius and Remus.
Sirius had given her fifteen galleons to spend on books again as well as a silver heart-shaped locket.
Then came the presents from Remus. He had gotten her a large number of muggle history books including one that focused on the War of the Roses.
“I knew you used to enjoy History class before you started at Hogwarts. I even managed to get you a book on medieval witch hunts, I know you study them this year in History of Magic so it could be quite interesting to read about them from a different perspective?”
“Wow, thanks! They’re perfect!” thanked Anne earnestly.
The other Ravenclaws started taking an interest in the history books.
By the time the presents had all been opened and they had had dinner it was now eight o clock. Sirius put a film on the projector which was being projected onto a spare white bedsheet they had hung up outside.
The first film was Beauty and the Beast which even though the boys pretended to hate, Anne did notice the boys humming along to the songs and laughing at the jokes. Then they watched a James Bond film.
By the time the second film was over it was getting late, so they turned the projector off. At this point, the kids started to make shadow puppets on to the bedsheet using a torch.
Anne decided to go to bed at this point and got into her sleeping bag to get comfortable. She stared up at the stars as it was a clear night and eventually fell asleep.
She dreamt of the Quirrell again that night. This time instead of killing Harry he killed Remus.
Anne woke up covered in sweat. Everyone had drifted off to sleep by this point.
“Its alright Anne, I’m here!” said a soft voice near her.
She looked over and noticed that Irwin was in the sleeping bag next to her. Irwin moved his sleeping bag closer to Anne’s and pulled her in close.
“Nothing’s going to hurt you, Anne, I promise” he assured her.
Anne fell back to sleep as Irwin comforted her and she didn’t dream about Quirrell again that night.