Being Different Year 5

“Remus!” screamed Anne throwing herself at him as he came back into the house five days later.

“Woah there princess,” putting her down gently because of all the suitcases he was carrying as Tonks followed him in the door.

“It can’t have been that bad we’ve only been gone five days.”

Anne nodded her head; it had been that bad

The Scamander’s had decided to go on their Summer holiday that week taking Julian with them. Anne had been left on her own in the house for five days with no one for company apart from two house elves and Sirius and Harry.

She loved Harry and Sirius dearly, but they were very different people from her. They had spent the last week going to quidditch matches and going flying with the Weasleys. Anne had never been much of a flyer and didn’t like large crowds at quidditch matches, so she had spent the majority of the last week helping Kreacher and Dobby prepare the house for being headquarters for the Order of the Phoenix.

The first meeting for the Order was tomorrow, they had been waiting for Remus and Tonks to get back from their Honeymoon.

“Clearly Remus next time we go on holiday we need to take Anne with us,” chortled Tonks as she brought in the last of the bags.

“You been sleeping alright sweetheart, you still look very tired,” said Remus concernedly.

Anne had huge shadows under her eyes.

“I’m fine,” she shrugged.

Remus gave her a meaningful expression.

“Nightmares?” he sighed. Almost every Summer since Anne had started Hogwarts, she had terrible nightmares.

“The graveyard?”

Anne nodded slowly.

“Come here poppet,” he muttered holding his arms open for a hug having put the bags down.

“You’re safe here he can’t get to you,” he assured as Anne cried into him.

Remus managed to calm Anne down like only he could, the family then spent the evening catching up with each other.

“The Weasleys are moving in tomorrow,” said Harry excitedly over the chocolate cake for pudding.

“Ron and I are going to share a room!”

“That’s great Harry, where are you putting the others?” asked Remus.

“Well Molly and Arthur are sharing and so are Fred and George, and then theres Ginny, they’re all going on the fourth floor. That only leaves Percy we were thinking of putting a spare bed in Julians room.”

“It makes sense,” agreed Remus, “Julian and Percy have always got on.”

“And Percy will enjoy the library,” nodded Anne.

After dinner Remus and Tonks went up to their room to unpack. They had all their suitcases from their honeymoon and the last few boxes of Tonks’ things from her parents’ house.

“Remus?”

“Yes Dora?” he asked folding some clothes in the wardrobe.

“You said that Anne was safe here but she isn’t the rest of the time.”

“What are you talking about dear?”

“Well no offense Remus but the twins clearly aren’t safe at school.”

“Look I do my best Dora ok?” said Remus in an offended tone.

“I know that, it’s not your fault but look at the statistics, in their first year they both had to fight Voldemort, second year Anne gets petrified and Harry has to fight Voldemort, third year Greyback attacks Ravenclaw Tower and Anne only saves her life by killing a werewolf, fourth year Harry gets illegally entered into a dangerous tournament and Voldemort gets reborn.”

“And you wonder why she has trouble sleeping,” he said exasperated, “I need to write to Pomfrey for some dreamless sleep,” he muttered.

“But you do agree they are not safe at school?”

“Of course, I agree, but in all honesty Dora Harry and Anne aren’t safe anywhere. Voldemort’s not going to stop until either he or they are dead.”

“But what are we supposed to do about it?” asked Tonks, “or do you just accept the fact that harry and Anne are going to face near death situations every single year?”

“Theres nothing we can do!” he shouted, “unless you want to pull them out of school and believe me I’ve thought about it many times.”

“Why don’t you?”

“Because, it wouldn’t be fair on them, by keeping them safe I would be keeping them away from their friends and not allowing them a normal childhood.”

“But it shouldn’t have to be a choice between safe and happy!”

“Yes well,” muttered Remus calming down slightly, “hopefully if we have our own children, we won’t have to make that choice.”

Remus and Tonks went to bed not long after finishing the unpacking, they had not been asleep long however when there was a faint knocking at the door.

Remus had very keen hearing, it was part of the wolf within him. He jerked awake at the sound of the knocking.

He groaned as he pulled himself out of bed, it was only one o’clock in the morning he realised as he checked his watch.

“Anne?” he asked startled as he opened the door to find Anne sobbing on the floor outside his room.

“Come on sweetheart,” he said picking her up and putting her down on his bed next to Tonks who was still asleep.

“Nightmare?”

“Hmmm,” she muttered.

“What was it this time?” he asked gently stroking her hair as she cried into his chest.

“The graveyard, he killed Cedric and then tortured Harry as usual, but Harry’s wand didn’t work when Harry tried to fight back, and Voldemort killed him.”

“Remus what’s wrong?” murmured Tonks as she woke up.

“Nothing Dora dear,” said Remus, “Anne’s just had another nightmare.”

Remus stroked Anne’s hair gently until she eventually fell asleep.

“Does this happen on a regular basis?” whispered Tonks.

Remus shrugged, “usually she stays in her own room, but she has been known to have nightmares on a nightly basis ever since she was a baby, they’ve got worse since Voldemort started trying to kill her and Harry though.”

“That’s not normal Remus, not nightmares that often at least.”

“Can you blame her? She’s sensitive and you know what she’s been through.”

“Its still not healthy Remus, she needs to sleep properly without being scared by nightmares every night.”

“Where are you going?” she whispered urgently.

“To write to Pomfrey, she clearly needs some dreamless sleep, thank Merlin that stuffs not addictive.”

Remus came back ten minutes later having written and sent his letter to Pomfrey. He found his favourite girls in the world fast asleep Anne on one side of the bed with her long red hair loose spread out on the pillow, Tonks was in the middle of the bed gently holding onto Anne’s hand. Remus got in on the other side of Tonks and slept soundly for once knowing that the two most important people in his life were for now safe.

The Weasleys arrived just after lunch with all their luggage via the flu. Sirius had offered to drive down to Dorset to come help with the luggage but the Weasleys had managed without need of the car.

“Hi guys!” called Julian as the Weasleys arrived. Julian had gotten back from camping with the Scamander’s only that morning and had been preparing his room for Percy’s arrival.

“Wheres Perce?” he asked, but then Julian saw the distraught face of Mrs Weasley and the look of fury on the rest of the family.

“Percy’s not coming,” said Mr Weasley brusquely. It was clear he didn’t want to discuss the subject any further.

“Come on guys, let’s get these trunks up to your rooms,” prompted Remus, trying to get all the kids out of the kitchen before the situation got any more tense.

“What happened with Percy?” asked Harry once they were all in the safety of his bedroom. Harry had a fairly large room, so it hadn’t been difficult to fit an extra bed for Ron.

Fred and George were perched on Ron’s bed whilst Harry, Ginny, Ron, and Julian were all sat on Harry’s, and Anne was leaning against the wall.

Fred and George looked at each other nervously.

“Percy’s been acting weird all holiday,” started Ron.

“We practically had to drag him to the wedding last week, he only showed up at all because Remus had been so nice to him as a kid,” said Ginny.

“According to Dad, Fudge has been going around the ministry trying to find out who’s in cahoots with Dumbledore,” explained Fred.

“You know what Perce is like a Ministry loving moron, if the Minister says that Dumbledore is bad he’ll believe them,” continued George.

“This doesn’t explain why you’re all so upset though,” said Julian.

“Last night Dad came home from work and said we were moving here, we’d been getting ready for the last fortnight ever since we got back from school,” said Ron.

“But Percy appeared to have other plans,” muttered Fred.

Ginny had a look of fury in her eyes,

“Percy told Dad that if he was with Dumbledore and the Order he was against the Ministry,” said George.

“It got pretty ugly,” flinched Ron, “Perce said that Dad was unambitious and obsessed with muggles which is why he’s never been promoted and why we’ve always been poor.”

“He what!” yelled Harry.

Fred and George nodded.

“He already had his bags packed, he got his trunk and he disapparated,” said Fred.

“We haven’t heard from him since,” said George.

“That’s terrible!” cried Anne, “I mean I know Percy’s always been enthusiastic about the ministry but to leave his family behind!”

“There’s more,” muttered Ron.

“There can’t be!” groaned Julian.

“You two got brought into it,” said Ginny looking at Harry and Anne.

“How?”

“Why?”

“Well the Prophets been being horrible about both of you for the last two weeks,” explained Fred.

“Sirius and Remus haven’t been letting us read it,” said Anne.

“And for good reason,” nodded George.

“What have they been saying exactly?” asked Harry wanting to get the worst over with.

“Well that Dumbledore is senile, they’re trying to discredit him,” said Ron.

“Why?” asked Harry.

“They don’t want people worrying about Voldemort being back, they don’t want people believing Dumbledore,” explained Julian who had been sneaking Remus’ prophet out of the bin every morning to read it.

“Fair enough,” said Anne, “but how does this affect us?”

“They don’t want people believing you or Harry either,” said Ron, “they are trying to make people think Harry is attention seeking and will do anything for a bit of attention, such as find a way to enter himself into the tournament even if he was underaged.”

Harry’s mouth was dropped open in shock.

“They’ve also been writing about Anne,” muttered Ginny.

“And what exactly has she done wrong?” screamed harry getting frustrated now.

“They’re saying that she’s mad,” Ginny blushed.

“What!!” shouted Harry.

“Strange dreams, overly emotional,” said Fred, “they are trying to convince people that shes mad.”

“Shes not mad!” Harry shouted, “she’s sensitive and good at divination there’s a difference isn’t there sis? Anne?” asked Harry confused.

Harry looked around and saw that the door had been opened and that his sister was no longer in the room.

“What is going on in here?” asked Mrs. Weasley standing in the doorway.

“We heard shouting,” said Sirius.

“They’ve been telling us that the Prophet thinks I’m attention seeking and that Anne is mad,” said Harry through gritted teeth.

“Jesus,” muttered Sirius running up the two flights to Anne’s room.

“Anne?” he asked knocking on the door, “Anne kiddo open the door please,” he begged.

There was no answer and the door was still locked.

“Merlin’s bloody balls,” he seethed Sirius heading back down to the kitchen to find Remus.

“Moony we’ve got a situation here,” said Sirius.

“I’m in the middle of something Sirius,” said Remus who was trying to calm down Mr Weasley.

“The kids know about the prophet,” sighed Sirius.

“What?” he asked snapping his head round to Sirius.

“They know everything, Dumbledore being delusional, Harry attention seeking, Anne mad.”

Sirius didn’t even have time to finish his sentence however before Remus went dashing past him at the speed of light.

“Anne sweetheart,” said Remus breathlessly having just run up six flights of stairs, “please open the door.”

“Go away!”

“It’s Remus, please let me in.”

There was the soft click of the door being unlocked.

“I wish you hadn’t found out that way,” sighed Remus sitting down next to her on the bad.

“You didn’t want me find at all,” she sobbed.

“I know,” he muttered, “I’m sorry we didn’t tell you but we didn’t want to upset you.”

“And how’s that working out?”

“I deserved that,” admitted Remus.

“Its all true though, I am crazy, Lisa and Mandy realised it years ago.”

“Sweetheart you are not crazy you are just different, you’re sensitive and emotional. As for your divination you know that’s not you being mad.”

“And as for the nightmares,” he said stroking her hair, “I’d like to see another girl of your age go through all the same things as you year after year and not be emotionally scarred.”

“Remus,” said Anne lifting her head off the pillows, “why do I have to be different why can’t I just be normal?”

“It does seem a bit unfair sometimes does isn’t it,” sighed Remus, “you’ve got enough trouble with Voldemort being after you, but you’ve got autism on top of that which makes it even harder.”

“I’ve written to Pomfrey, she’s going to send me a batch of dreamless sleep tomorrow, should help you get some catch up.”

“Thanks,” she said quietly drying her eyes.

“People are going to start showing up for the meeting soon, want to come down and say hi quickly?”

“Do I have to?” she mumbled.

“A lot of people are going to want to meet you, and none of them think you’re mad!” he chortled, “quite a few of them knew your parents.”

“I guess I could come down for a bit,” she shrugged going back downstairs with Remus.

“We all sorted Remus?” asked Sirius.

“Yeah we’re all good.”

“I’m sorry Remus, we should have warned the kids not to talk about the Prophet,” said Arthur.

“They were going to find out sooner or later Arthur,” sighed Remus.

“But it would have been good to not have the bombshell like they did though,” said Sirius.

Soon members of the Order began to arrive many of them clearly already knew each other because they had fought together during the first war. The Weasleys had to be introduced to everyone though because they had been too busy raising their young family to be in the Order the first time around.

Anne recognised many of the people already, Professors McGonagall, Hagrid and Snape, and of course Dumbledore himself. Andromeda and Ted Tonks were also joining too.

One of the arrivals Anne thought she had known for a whole year but it had turned out to be a deatheater in disguise.

“Anne this is the real Alistar Moody,” said Remus leading her over, “don’t worry this ones not going to try using the unforgiveable curses on you.”

“What?” asked Mrs Weasley astounded.

“Were you not aware that he had placed the Imperio curse on classes upon classes of students?” asked Sirius surprised.

“No I wasn’t,” she muttered.

Anne held out her hand nervously.

“So, you’re the one who killed Greyback eh?” asked Moody in his gruff voice.

“Um, yes sir,” muttered Anne.

“Good on you,” said Moody before going off to go and talk to Hagrid.

“This is Emmeline Vance and Deadalus Diggle,” Remus continued as a tall witch arrived with a tiny wizard who was wearing a purple top hat.

“Good to see you Remus, congratulations on your wedding,” said Emmeline Vance.

“Thank you, Emmeline, this is Anne, Lily and James daughter,” he said with his arm around her.

Anne was staring at her shoes and pulling at one of her plaits.

“I should have known,” smiled Emmeline, “you look so much like her.”

“It is a great honour to meet you Miss Potter,” said Dedalus shaking her hand vigorously, “I have of course cancelled my subscription to the Prophet, the things they’ve been writing.”

“Is Mrs Lupin here?” asked Emmeline.

“She’s just over there, the one with the purple hair,” said Remus indicating Tonks who was chatting with Ginny and Bill who had come for his first meeting today,

Emmeline and Dedalus went off to introduce themselves to Remus’ new wife.

The only other person that Anne hadn’t met yet was a woman with light blonde hair.

“This is Hestia Jones, she was a year younger than us at school,” said Remus introducing Anne to the last person.

“Hello,” muttered Anne.

“I see she doesn’t have the gift of the gab from James or Sirius then?” chuckled Hestia.

“No, Anne’s a bit shy,” Remus admitted.

“I’m sure that Sirius more than makes up for that!”

“You could say that yes,” chortled Remus.

“Have you heard any news about Frank or Alice recently,” she asked quietly.

“There’s been no change,” sighed Remus.

“Their son must be getting quite old now?”

“Neville’s nearly fifteen, in the same year as Harry and Anne.”

“Do you know him well?” asked Hestia.

“Um yes,” Anne muttered, “Harry’s in the same as him though.”

“They look so much like Lily and James don’t they,” she said to Remus.

“Always have done,” Remus agreed, “but they’re not their parents though.”

“Oh no of course not,” said Hestia, “they would be so proud of both of you.”

Anne muttered something about homework and headed up to the safety of her bedroom. She could only take so much of so many new people in one evening, especially ones who kept on comparing her to her parents.

The other kids were asked to leave the kitchen soon after so they could get on with the meeting. Julian stayed in the kitchen as he was joining along with Tonks and the Weasleys.

“Hey Anne,” said Fred coming up to her room, “want to listen in on the meeting with us?” he was holding a box of string like objects with ears attached.

“No thanks,” said Anne getting out her potion’s textbook.

It was kind of weird to think that half of those people in the kitchen would have known and fought alongside her parents, many of their friends would have died in that war and here they were about to enter another one.

Anne was just finishing her potions essay a few hours later when she heard a voice outside her door.

“So, this is where you escape to?”

Anne looked up from her desk and found Emmeline standing in the doorway.

“Sorry if I’m disturbing you,” said Emmeline turning to leave.

“No, it’s ok,” said Anne putting away her essay, “I’ve just finished.”

“I knew your parents very well.”

“Who didn’t,” muttered Anne.

“You must get that a lot I know, they were a great witch and wizard, they were so happy when you were born.”

Anne looked over at Emmeline.

“I’m sorry I’ve heard a lot about my parents today and how much I look like them but that’s where the resemblance stops. I am nothing like my parents I’m not brave, I don’t want to fight.”

“From what Remus and Albus have been telling me that’s not completely true.”

“Oh I’m not calling you a liar,” said Emmeline seeing the expression on Anne’s face. “But apparently when you have to be you can be very brave. If the person who can kill Greyback isn’t brave then who is?”

“That was a one off,” muttered Anne.

“Bravery comes in all shapes and sizes,” said Emmeline, “there is the Gryffindor bravery, rash and always ready for a fight, and then there’s the Ravenclaw version, you prefer to talk things out and then only fight if you have to.”

Anne nodded slightly.

“That means you’re still brave if you will fight for what’s right, just because you don’t look it doesn’t mean you’re not strong.”

“Thanks,” muttered Anne.

“And ignore the prophet, its not even worth the compost heap.”

Anne grinned and headed back downstairs with Emmeline; some people had already gone home but others were getting ready for dinner.

“You alright sweetheart?” asked Remus from where he was sitting with Tonks at the kitchen table.

“I’m fine.”

“We’ve been getting acquainted Remus,” beamed Emmeline, “did I ever tell you about the time that I had to get James and Sirius out of a muggle prison for dangerous driving of that flying motorbike of his?”

“No,” said Fred.

“Do tell us more,” agreed George.

“I think you’ve made yourself some new friends Emmeline,” chuckled Remus as the Weasleys, Harry and Anne listened intently to hear her story.