Being Different Year 5
A Day Off

Once they all got back from Christmas the Ravenclaws went into overdrive. They always kicked up the studying after Christmas in time for the exams, but this year was crazy. Every single morning Anne would study for at least an hour before Irwin was even awake. As always though the best part about the morning for Irwin was their morning make out session before breakfast, not even OWLs could change that! In the evenings they would study for at least four hours after spending the whole day in class and the weekends were just crazy!

The only night they got off a week was DA night. Hermione had given everyone enchanted coins that would tell them the date of the next meeting. One night a week they would all get a night off from studying, even though the DA itself was a kind of study group because they were practising for the Defence exam it was very different from their usual studying.

On a Wednesday evening in early February Anne was trying to squeeze in some astronomy revision before the DA meeting, when Irwin came over to her with a huge beam on his face.

“Not now Irwin,” Anne muttered, “I’m studying.”

“Come on Annie,” he chuckled pulling her away from the Common Room.

“Irwin, we’ve got over an hour till the meeting what in the name of Merlin is going on?”

“It’s a surprise,” he said still beaming.

They got to the seventh floor and saw that the door for the Room of Requirement was already there.

“After you milady,” said Irwin as he opened the door for her.

Anne walked in and found that it was the regular room for their meetings but even though it was an hour early, the fifth year Ravenclaws and Luna were already there.

“What’s going on?” she asked confused.

“You know how Umbridge banned music?” asked Irwin as he shut the door.

“How could I forget,” muttered Anne.

“Well this room is soundproof,” explained Anthony.

“We thought it might give you a nice break from studying,” beamed Persephone.

By the time that the others started arriving nearly an hour later, they were dancing to ABBA and unsurprisingly Anne did feel much better.

Once Harry arrived at seven o’clock it was getting close to a full-on rave, and Brenda Potager was trying to crowd surf.

“Ok guys,” chuckled Harry, “let’s get some work done!”

They had started learning several jinxes by now including rictumsempra, engorgio and the jelly legs jinx.

Today Anne was paired up with Brenda Potager and by the time that they left Anne was still doing an Irish jig on every couple of steps, and Brenda’s legs were still slightly wobbly from the jelly legs jinx.

On Saturday it was Valentine’s day and it was a Hogsmeade day. Anne was spending some time with Irwin before going down to the village

“You go enjoy a day off,” said Irwin, “I’ll see you when you get back Annie.”

“You sure you don’t want to come?” asked Anne nervously.

“No, I have to prepare you a surprise for tonight,” Irwin whispered.

Anne blushed profusely.

“Can’t I just stay here with you today?” she begged.

“I would love that more than anything in the world my Auburn locked goddess, but I have to prepare you your Valentine’s day surprise, and you have to meet up with Hermione.”

“Couldn’t I just stay here and study? I’m really behind on my divination revision.”

“Annie, you’ll pass that exam by just showing up,” he assured her, “and Hermione needs to meet up with you.”

“Oh alright,” she sighed giving Irwin one last kiss before going to fetch her coat, scarf, hat and scarf from upstairs.

Luna and Anne headed down to the village together. They went into Scrivenshaft’s Quill Shop. Anne was starting to run out of ink because of how much studying she had been doing for the last month. She had to get some more no smudge ink because she was left-handed and regular ink smudged when she was writing.

“Maybe we should get some fun colours,” said Luna, “make it a bit more exciting?”

Anne eventually decided to get a few bottles of violet and emerald ink as well as some colour changing ink. She also picked up some regular blank and blue ink for her homework and essays.

“Um Luna,” Anne muttered, “I’m meant to be meeting Hermione about something in the Hog’s Head.”

“Oh yes I know,” said Luna cheerfully, “I’m coming too!”

Anne was getting more confused by the minute, why all the secrecy, what in the world was going on? When they reached the Hogs Head Anne somehow got even more confused, Hermione was sat at a table with none other than Rita Skeeter and a very confused Harry.

“Can somebody please explain to me what is going on here?” asked Anne slightly exasperated as she sat down at the table.

“Don’t ask me,” muttered Harry who had his arms folded and was looking at anybody in the pub apart from Rita.

“Anne, how lovely to meet you,” beamed Rita.

Anne merely glared at her, Rita had spent their fourth year ruining Harry’s life.

“Where’s Ginny and Ron?”

“Quidditch practise,” growled Harry. He was still annoyed how he couldn’t play Quidditch anymore.

“Ohhh who’s Ginny?” asked Rita.

“You are not here to ruin any more of our lives,” said Hermione, “you did enough of that last year!”

“They’re ruining Harry’s life at the Prophet without my help this year,” said Rita, “calling you all sorts of horrible things, attention seeking, and dangerous not to mention calling your poor sweet sister mentally unstable.”

“Leave her out of this,” said Harry.

“But how does all this make you feel? Underappreciated? Betrayed? Misunderstood?”

“He feels furious of course,” said Hermione, “because he’s telling the truth and the Ministry’s too stupid to believe him.”

“So, you’re actually sticking to that story?” smirked Rita, “do you really believe that you know is back and that you were the sole witness?”

“I wasn’t the sole witness,” he scowled, “what about the death eaters? You want their names?”

“I’d love them!” beamed Rita, “imagine the headlines! ‘Potter accuses Deatheaters still at large.’”

“But of course,” she muttered turning to Hermione, “Little Miss Perfect doesn’t want that.”

“Actually, that’s exactly what Little Miss Perfect wants,” Hermione smirked.

“I’m sorry, you want me to report that You Know Who Has Survived, who would actually print that?”

“Well not the Prophet,” said Hermione, “that’s why Luna’s here.”

“Daddy’s offered to print it in his paper,” beamed Luna.

“And what does your father print? Some village paper?”

“Daddy only writes about very serious matters,” said Luna with her nose in the air, “he’s the editor of The Quibbler.”

“The Quibbler!” screamed Rita, “serious matters my arse!”

“You’re either writing for The Quibbler or not at all,” said Hermione.

“People wont take it seriously!”

“Some people will, there were a lot of gaps in the story the Prophet printed on the Azkaban breakout.”

Anne flinched slightly and started pulling nervously at one of her plaits, the thought of Bellatrix Lestrange and the other Deatheaters loose gave her the shivers.

“So fine I write this for the bloody Quibbler, will I actually be getting paid?”

“Nope,” said Hermione shaking her head.

“Fine,” scowled Rita as she pulled out her quick quotes quill.

“Um Hermione,” Anne stuttered, “why am I here?”

“You are here to teach the wizarding population the difference between mentally instability and being autistic and emotional.”

“So, I’m writing two articles now?”

“In a way yes but also no, its just one very long article from the way that the Prophet has been treating Anne, it is clear to me that people in the magical world don’t understand social anxiety or antisocial disorders, because they keep on calling her mad and crazy because she has panic attacks and she is painfully shy,” ranted Hermione.

Anne was hiding behind one of her plaits again as she stared at her shoes.

“You ok little sis?” asked Harry.

“You could have told me what this was about before I came,” she muttered.

“If I’d told you two why you were coming neither of you would have shown up,” said Hermione.

“Hermione, even though that is logical that is very harsh,” said Luna with her usual bluntness.

“They’re both right you know,” agreed Harry.

“So, are we writing these ruddy articles or not?” asked Rita getting impatient.

Harry looked at Anne for a moment who gave him a slight nod.

“Take it away Rita,” said Harry giving in to the inevitable.

The interviews went on for hours, Harry had to talk all about how he had seen Voldemort come back to life and all the deatheaters that had been there. Anne was gripping onto Harry’s hand under the table the whole time.

Then Harry and Anne had to talk about the Dementor attack last Summer, how Anne had nearly lost her soul and how they were both being persecuted by the ministry.

Rita then asked Anne about her autism and how it affected her and how it changed her experience at Hogwarts.

By the time that they had finished it was nearly four o’clock and they had been sat there for nearly five hours. Harry and Anne were both exhausted and the only thing that made the day any better was by remembering that it was Valentine’s day and that Ginny and Irwin were waiting for them back at the school.

“Anne finally!” screamed Padma as she came into the Common Room.

“You said she’d be back hours ago,” said Padma glaring at Luna as they dragged Anne up to the Common Room.

They got up to the dormitory and it was evident that Lisa, and Persephone were also up there, and Mandy was in the middle of getting them both ready for their dates.

“What is going on?” asked Anne confused as Padma forced her into a chair.

“You three are taking the night off to spend some time with your boyfriends,” said Mandy as she did Lisa’s make up.

By six o’clock Anne, Persephone, and Lisa were ready for their Valentine’s day dates. Mandy had twisted Anne’s hair into an elegant half up bun, Irwin always liked Anne’s hair loose, so they left the rest of it down. Padma had done Anne’s make up in light pinks to go with her dress.

“It’s Valentine’s Day so you should probably wear the pink,” said Mandy as she went through Anne’s wardrobe, “dress robes are a little formal.”

Mandy pulled out dusty pink dress with short sleeves that fell to just below Anne’s knee. Luna did up Anne’s silk sash or the dress and they then went through the jewellery.

Anne always wore her charm bracelet from the Lovegood’s for protection. She wanted to wear the necklace that Irwin had given her for Christmas, but they eventually decided on a silver heart that she had been given a few years ago because it went better with the dress.

“I think we’re done here,” said Mandy as she admired their work before Lisa Persephone and Anne went downstairs to the Common Room were Anthony and Irwin were waiting for them nervously. They were both wearing suits rather than dress robes because dress robes were so formal.

“I always told you were a goddess,” said Irwin taking Anne’s hands in his, “and now everyone else can see it too.”

“Thanks Irwin, you look great too,” she blushed. Irwin was wearing navy dress shirt and trousers with a dark green tie which matched his eyes.

“Come on you lot,” said Mandy, “your night of magic awaits.”

Justin was waiting outside the common room for them with a corsage for Lisa.

The corsage was made of light blue flowers which went well with Lisa’s blonde hair.

“Ok Annie do you trust me?” asked Irwin.

“Of course I trust you!”

They put blindfolds over the three girls and led them towards the secret location for their date.

“You ready?” asked Irwin.

Anne nodded and Irwin took off the blindfold. It was clear that the boys had been very busy that afternoon.

It was the Room of Requirement but never like that had ever seen it before. Somehow Irwin had managed to get the Room of Requirement to turn into a part of the grounds back at Scamander Hollow.

The boys had clearly been busy all day, there were homemade paper lanterns in different shades of pink hanging from the trees. Anne’s record player was playing music softly in the background. There was a huge picnic blanket spread out on the grass with a large hamper full of food.

“We just wanted you girls to get a night off to relax,” said Anthony as they started to unpack the hamper.

The boys hadn’t just been busy decorating, they had also managed to get Persephone, Lisa and Anne’s favourite dishes.

“Dobby and Kreacher helped,” explained Irwin, they had had the two house elves got to their houses and collect the girls favourite dishes under warming charms.

Kreacher had made Anne her favourite dinner of lasagne and garlic bread.

Other than that, the basket was full of all kinds of treats, chocolate covered strawberries, heart shape biscuits with pink icing and sprinkles, Persephone’s mum had even sent her favourite Tiramisu.

After they had eaten their fill then Justin and Irwin folded away the picnic basket and put the hamper away whilst Anthony sorted out the records. After slow dancing for a while Anthony and Persephone decided to go back to the Dormitory so they could get some privacy, whilst Justin and Lisa went for a walk in the grounds.

Irwin and Anne were slow dancing to Vera Lynn’s We’ll Meet Again. Anne was resting her head on Irwin’s shoulder and she wished this moment could go on forever.

“Irwin,” she muttered.

“Hmmm?”

“Can we stay here forever?”

“I wish,” he mumbled.

“Why not?”

“Because we can’t hide in here forever,” he chuckled.

“But there’s no Umbridge, no OWLs, no people staring at me, I could go on.”

“Annie,” he said gently after giving her another kiss, “I know it’s rough for you out there. But we’ll get through this together alright?”

“Alright,” Anne muttered, “one more song?”

“Ok,” he chuckled as he put Vera Lynn on one more time.

“Annie,” said Irwin as they kissed on the staircase up to the girls dorms, “I love you.”

“I love you too, and thank you for a wonderful night” she muttered giving him one last kiss before heading up to bed.