Being Different Year 6

Anne woke by being licked all over her face.

“Don’t do that,” she muttered, “that tickles!”

“Meow?” said Diana looking at her curiously before licking her face again.

“Good morning to you Di,” chuckled Anne, “what time is it?”

Anne tickled Diana between the ears whilst she checked the time.

“Seven o’clock,” she sighed, “well then Di, we’d best get packing!”

Anne pulled herself out of bed and started to pack her books for the coming year, it was going to be a long one, between eight NEWTs, prefect duties, and trying to stop Voldemort and his deatheaters from invading the school, she would hardly have any time for Irwin.

She took a bath and washed her hair before drying it with the charm that Padma had found in fourth year.

She pulled on her school skirt, shirt and jumper and her grey school tights, and then put her robes on top of that. She did up her Ravenclaw tie and then attached her Prefect badge onto her robes.

She brushed out her hair and tied it in the two regular plaits as usual before attaching her hair ribbons which turned bronze to bring out the bronze on her robes, tie and Prefect badge.

“Ok Di, we ready for another year at school?”

“Meow!” said Diana, leaping down from the bed and into her little cat basket.

Anne chuckled slightly as she took her trunk down the stairs before going back down with Diana’s cat basket.

“Morning everyone,” said Sirius beaming as he sat down at the table.

“What’s so good about it?” growled Harry over his bowl of porridge. His summer of fun with broomstick flying, motorbike lessons and no homework had finally come to an end.

Tonks and Remus were both nursing cups of coffee and looked exhausted.

“How was the mission?” asked Anne.

“Well we made it back alive,” shrugged Tonks.

“What happened?” asked Harry.

“We were trying to do some recruitment for the Order,” sighed Remus, “we got ambushed by Deatheaters.”

“Rodolphus and Rabastan Lestrange,” muttered Tonks.

“Not those idiots!” said Sirius.

“Fortunately, everyone made it out safe,” said Tonks, “we then took the Lestranges into the ministry, they should be on their way back to Azkaban by now.”

“It’s pity you didn’t kill them when you had the chance,” growled Harry.

“Alice and Frank could have got on step closer to getting their minds back,” said Sirius.

“Merlin,” muttered Remus, “I’d forgotten all about that.”

“We were so worried about getting everyone out safely that we forgot about Anne’s theory,” said Tonks.

“Look all that matters is that you got back home safely,” said Anne, “and that nobody got hurt.”

“Thanks sweetheart,” said Remus smiling slightly.

“We need to get a move on,” said Sirius checking the time, it was already half past nine.

The others headed upstairs to go and get ready to catch the train.

“Want some help with your trunk Harry?” asked Anne as Harry tried to manage his messy hair.

“Thanks, little Sis,” beamed Harry as Anne placed a feather light charm on the trunk.

“Ok gang,” said Sirius, “we got everything?”

“Two school trunks, one owl cage, one cat carrier and one firebolt,” nodded Anne.

“Come on then lets get a move on,” said Sirius.

Anne helped Tonks lift Teddy’s pram down the stairs leading up to the house.

Remus and Tonks carried Anne’s trunk and Diana, whilst Harry and Sirius carried Harry’s trunk and Hedwig. There was feather light charms on the two trunks but it made more sense to the muggles if there was two people carrying each trunk. Anne meanwhile pushed Teddy in his pram.

They could have taken the car, but firstly they wouldn’t have fit all of them along with Teddy’s car seat, and the half an hour walk to the train station, meant they all got another half an hour before Harry and Anne went back to school.

“Ok Teddy,” said Anne, “ready to see something magical?”

Anne walked firmly towards the barriers between platform nine and ten, and they were soon on platform nine and three quarters.

“Hey Annie,” beamed Irwin, giving her a quick kiss.

“Hi Irwin,” said Anne.

“Is Teddy coming to Hogwarts then?” asked Irwin leaning down to talk to Teddy in his pram.

Anne picked him up out of his pram, Teddy’s hair was indigo today and he was wearing a bright red romper suit.

“No, Teddy’s too young to go to school,” said Anne bumping him on her hip.

“That’s a shame you know,” said Irwin earnestly, “he’s adorable.”

“Looks like you two have been busy,” chuckled Anthony looking from Anne and Irwin to baby Teddy.

“Anthony, you’ve met Teddy,” said Irwin, “you know that this is Remus and Tonks’ baby.”

“I know that, but you two make cute parents,” said Anthony.

“Bye bye Teddy,” said Anne kissing him on the top of the head before passing him back to Tonks.

Remus had already loaded her trunk and cat basket into a trunk, Anne had to go to a Prefect meeting.

“We’ll see you at Christmas sweetheart,” said Remus giving her a bone crushing hug.

“Knock their socks off kiddo,” said Sirius patting her on the back before she headed off to the Prefect compartment.

“So,” said Anthony as they headed towards the compartment together, “other than babysitting what else did you get up to this Summer?”

“Well helped Dumbledore with staff recruitment,” said Anne, “and talked to Neville’s parents.”

“You mean the mentally deranged ones?” asked Anthony confused.

“Yep,” nodded Anne.

“Have I ever told you that you’re weird?”

“Many times,” she muttered, “but I’m not denying it.”

“Who wants to be normal anyway?”

“Hi Anthony, Anne,” beamed Hannah, “had good Summers?”

“Yeah spent a lot of time with Sephie, she went to Greece with her parents to visit her family and I went with them.”

“How about you Anne?” asked Ernie

“I spent a lot of time round at Irwin’s, wish we had had some homework though.”

“You wanted homework?” asked Ernie, “we spent over a year studying for those exams.”

“Yeah I know,” shrugged Anne.

“So how many NEWTs you guys going to take?” asked Hannah.

“Five,” said Ernie.

“Four,” shrugged Hannah.

“Eight,” said Anne and Anthony simultaneously.

“Are you too mad!” exclaimed Ernie.

“Eight NEWTs and Prefect duties?” asked Hannah.

“Not to mention keeping up a relationship,” said Ernie.

“To be honest,” said Anne, “I didn’t know which ones to drop.”

“Also,” added Anthony, “the busier we are, the less time we have to worry about You Know Who and his supporters.”

The Head girl and boy gave their welcome speech, before the prefects divided and conquered, one carriage a couple.

Anthony and Anne patrolled their carriage of the train before going to go and find their friends.

“Welcome to the love compartment!” beamed Irwin as they arrived.

“Shut up,” glared Anthony as he sat down next to Persephone.

“Hi Justin, Lisa,” said Anne as she sat down opposite Irwin next to Anthony.

Anne stretched out her legs and placed her feet on Irwin’s lap.

“Good Summer?” asked Justin.

“Quieter than usual,” considered Anne, “no dementor attacks, no deatheater riots, just spending time with my family.”

“Now if we can just keep that up, we should be in for a good year,” said Irwin sighing slightly.

“Rumour has it,” said Terry poking his head around the compartment door, “that the three happiest couples in the school are sat in this compartment.”

“So,” asked Michael leaning against the half open door, “what’s the secret to eternal happiness?”

“And by that he means, how do you get and keep such hot girlfriends?” said Terry.

“Well the first thing you need to do,” said Lisa standing up, “is to stop viewing girls an inanimate object.”

“And the second thing you need to do,” added Anne, “is to learn there is no secret, if you wait patiently enough you will meet your special someone.”

“But most importantly,” said Anthony, “you need to get out and leave us in peace.”

“Thank you for the advice ladies,” said Michael bowing slightly as they left the compartment and shut the door after them.

“Gits,” muttered Justin as Lisa sat back down, and he put his arm back around her.

“So what’s the plan for the perfect year?” asked Persephone.

“Well study a lot,” said Anne.

“Make out a lot,” said Lisa beaming at Justin.

“And try and forget about Voldemort,” said Irwin.

“Sounds like a plan to me,” muttered Anthony.

When the train pulled up at the school it was clear how much security had been increased. Before being let in they all had to be searched by secrecy sensors and dark detectors, their bags had to be checked as well.

“Hey Anne,” waved Luna from the Ravenclaw table when they came into the Great Wall.

“Hi Luna,” said Anne giving her a hug, “how was Norway?”

“Fascinating, the fjords were the most beautiful thing I’ve even seen!”

“So did you find a crumple horned snorcack?” asked Anne.

Anthony and Lisa chuckled slightly, and Irwin kicked them both under the table.

“Leave her,” breathed Irwin.

“No,” sighed Luna, “but I did get to pet a reindeer.”

“Oh, that’s lovely,” said Anne.

“Quick question,” said Lisa, “how many more years are there left in the baby boom?”

“Baby booms over,” said Anthony, “the year groups should be back to normal, about a hundred.”

“That still outnumbers us nearly three to one,” pointed out Irwin.

“We sticking to the same method as last year?” asked Anne.

“What I do the physical side such as breaking up fights and crowd control, whilst you do everything else?” asked Anthony.

“Is there any other way?” asked Anne beaming.

“And I thought we were the dream team?” chuckled Persephone.

“Can’t I be on two dream teams?” asked Anthony.

After dinner they headed back up to the Common Room, and everybody toom their trunks up to their dorms.

“Hey Anne,” said Mandy, “so I hear your brothers the chosen one, that’s got to be pretty cool.”

“It really doesn’t change that much,” muttered Anne as she unpacked her books from her trunk and let out Diana.

“Ah, is our dormitories security cat back?” asked Padma tickling Diana behind the ears.

“Not only is she cute,” agreed Mandy, “but she stopped Michael and Terry from getting in last year when they tried to prank our dorm with a bucket of stink bombs.”

“Oh yeah,” said Lisa reminiscently, “their faces were covered in claw marks for a week, it was hilarious!”

“Hey girls,” said Terry poking his head around the door.

Diana looked at him suspiciously looking as though she was preparing herself to attack him again.

“Look no stink bombs!” said Terry showing her his empty pockets.

Diana still glared at him for a moment before allowing Padma to continue stroking her.

“It’s ten to eight,” Terry pointed out.

“Ohh, good point,” said Mandy putting on her high heels.

“Let’s go blow the roof off this joint!” said Persephone getting up from where she had been unpacking her trunk.

The five girls all headed back down to the common room where the Ravenclaws were gathering.

“Hey hey my fellow Claws!!” called Michael down his wand that he was using as a microphone.

“To our firsties,” said Terry, “welcome to Ravenclaw, the house of creativity, and wisdom.”

“And before you start asking, no we’re not mad, just some of us are a bit eccentric,” said Michael.

The first years were all looking at each other nervously, as though they weren’t so sure that Michael and Terry weren’t mad.

“To everyone else,” said Terry, “welcome back, we’re going to get a lot of studying done this year.”

“But before that,” beamed Michael.

“Let’s rock!” they called before pointing their wands in the air.

Don’t You Want Me Baby, by the Superhuman League started blaring throughout the Common Room.

The first years looked even more confused than they had done earlier, but they soon joined in with the dancing.

“Ok people,” said Terry as it came close to nine o’clock, “we have got time for one more song and we have been given a request.”

“So here we are, I’m Gonna Be, by The Proclaimers,” said Michael.

When the final song came to an end, then Michael and Terry stepped off the chairs they had been standing on, and the students put the desks back to normal.

“Excuse me,” said one of the new first years with blonde bunchies, coming over to talk to Anne “does every house do this?”

“No its just a Ravenclaw thing,” explained Irwin.

“I told you,” said a first year boy, “this house is the party house.”

“I thought Hufflepuff was the party house?” said Lisa.

“Yeah because they’re closer to the kitchens,” nodded Irwin.

“This must be the cool house then,” said the first year.

“No that’s the Gryffindors,” explained Anne.

“So if Gryffindor’s the cool house, and Hufflepuff’s the party house, then what are we?” asked the girl with the blonde bunchies.

“Well we’re not allowed to use the ‘c’ word,” said Anthony, “so we usually go with eccentric or different.”

“Ohh,” said the two first years, they still looking slightly confused.

“So one last night before we hit class,” said Irwin as they finished the unpacking.

“I’ll bring the chess board,” said Anthony.

“And I’ll bring the Monty Python records,” said Lisa.

The sixth years stayed up till the early hours of the morning in the girls dorm, playing chess and listening to comedy records.

“Is it weird,” said Anne as Persephone plaited her hair, “that we’ve only got two years of this left?”

“Wow,” smirked Anthony, “we’ve been doing this for five years and I’m still beating you at chess!”

“Shut up,” growled Michael.