Being Different Year 6
Family Christmas

Another month flew by, occasionally Dumbledore would ask Harry and Anne back for another meeting, in the week before Christmas they had had a very memorable meeting where Dumbledore told them about the Deathly Hallows. He explained to them that the objects from the Tale of the Three Brothers were not only real, but they were all in this room, Dumbledore’s wand, the stone from the Horcrux ring and the invisibility cloak in Harry’s pocket.

She kept her bottle of Felix Felicis from Slughorn hidden at the bottom of her trunk.

The night before they all went home for Christmas was the night of Slughorn’s Christmas party.

Before she got ready for the party she was fishing around in her trunk for her Walkman, she hadn’t seen it in a few days and she missed it, she liked to listen to music whilst she studied.

Anne was wearing a set of deep purple dress robes, purple seemed to be her colour, it suited her dark red hair. She plaited her hair and then Lisa pinned the plait up into a bun.

She added a silver necklace of the moon she had given by the Scamander’s a few years back.

“Hello my beautiful goddess,” beamed Irwin as she came down the stairs.

“And I thought you could never get more beautiful but yet each time I see you your beauty grows.”

Anne blushed slightly and gave him a shy smile.

“If most said people that it would be creepy,” said Anthony from behind his book.

“Leave off Goldstein,” muttered Irwin as they left the Common Room.

“So, Annie, what’s your plan for this Christmas?” he asked as they headed down to the kitchens.

“Just a usual family Christmas,” said Anne.

“As usual as you can get when your family actually consists of four separate families,” chuckled Irwin.

“I’ll have you know that although we are a tad bit strange, we are very happy.”

“I know that, you’ll have a great time! Little Teddy must be getting quite big now?”

“Yeah, eight and a half months,” Anne nodded. She couldn’t wait to see Teddy again, she missed him so much.

“Anne, Irwin,” beamed Slughorn, “welcome!”

Slughorn was wearing an emerald green velvet smoking jacket that hardly did up around his huge stomach.

“Thank you sir,” said Irwin shaking Slughorn’s hand.

“Merry Christmas sir,” said Anne.

Slughorn had invited some very strange people to the party including a vampire.

“There you two are,” said Slughorn halfway through the party, he had a middle-aged wizard with him in a pair of sky blue dress robes.

“Anne, Irwin, this is Richard Boot,” said Slughorn, “Richard, this is Anne Potter and Irwin Scamander, these are the two promising young students I was telling you about, looking for a career in the Ministry.”

“Hello sir,” said Irwin holding out his hand and Slughorn left.

“Hello, so you’re the famous Anne and Irwin?” he chuckled, “Horace hasn’t stopped going on about you for weeks, to be honest I wouldn’t have come if I didn’t want to meet you both.”

“So what department are you in at the Ministry?” asked Irwin.

“Deputy head of Magical Law Enforcement,” said Richard Boot.

“Really?” asked Irwin suddenly interested, “that’s the department I want to get into!”

“As I said,” Richard beamed, “Sluggy’s been nagging me to meet you for over a month.”

“It’s the Department of Education you’re interested isn’t it Miss Potter?”

“Yes sir,” muttered Anne staring down at her shoes.

“Annie’s a bit shy,” said Irwin in a stage whisper.

“Why education though?”

“Education is an essential part of a witch or wizards’ life,” Anne explained. “It can provide a proper foundation; I want to make it as worthwhile as possible.”

“You need teachers that will interest and engage with the students. The course curriculum’s need some serious updating, muggle studies is seriously outdated.”

Richards mouth twitched slightly as Anne gave her passionate speech.

“I thought you said she was shy?” he asked turning to Irwin and trying his hardest not to laugh.

“She is!” chuckled Irwin, “usually, unless it’s a topic she has some really serious opinions about.”

“Well, when you two graduate we’ll have to see about getting you both in the departments you’re interested in, it was lovely to meet you both.”

Richard walked off to go and talk to Harry and Ginny.

The most entertaining part of the evening was watching Hermione try and avoid Cormac McLagan who she had only invited to spite Ron.

The party didn’t end until gone midnight, Anne and Irwin headed back to Common Room which for once was empty.

“Merry Christmas Annie,” muttered Irwin.

Anne waved her hand over their heads and a sprig of mistletoe appeared hanging in mid-air.

Irwin’s eyes lit up and he pulled Anne in close for a long kiss under the mistletoe.

“I love you Annie,” he whispered softly.

“I love you too,” she answered.

“Irwin,” she mumbled between kisses.

“Hmmm?”

“We have to get the train in a few hours,” she reminded him.

“You’re right,” he sighed, “I’ll see you in the morning.”

Anne had a number of dreams that night, the one with the phoenix and the snake, and a couple of nightmares featuring Quirrell and Tom.

There was another dream where Anne was in the garden at Elm Grove on a Summer’s afternoon, she was cuddling a tiny baby who had a shock of red hair, Irwin was lying under a tree next to her casting bubbles out of his wand. They were so happy, but Anne knew that Harry wasn’t there, she knew that by the time she and Irwin started a family, Harry would be dead.

Anne packed her trunk and got the train home to King’s Cross, Sirius and Mad Eye Moody were waiting for them on the platform.

“Hey Sirius,” said Harry rushing over to his godfather.

“Hey there Prongslet,” beamed Sirius pulling Harry into a hug.

“Anne,” said Sirius looking her up and down, “you’re turning into a young lady.”

“She is coming of age in eight months Sirius,” pointed out Moody taking her trunk.

When they got back to 12 Grimmauld Place, Tonks was at work, but Remus was at home with Teddy.

“Hi Teddy,” said Anne taking him from Remus and giving him a huge cuddle.

“Don’t I get a welcome anymore?” asked Remus in a slightly offended tone.

“Of course,” said Anne handing Teddy to Sirius so Remus could pull into a huge hug.

“I’ve missed you so much,” he muttered into her hair, “have you put on some weight?”

Anne was looking slightly less skinny than she used to, between regular sleep with help from Irwin, she had been able to rest properly, even Madam Pomfrey had noticed that she had put on some weight, she was still skinny though of course.

Anne and Harry had a great Christmas, they were trying to make it memorable as it was Teddy’s first. Sirius pulled out his Father Christmas costume that he hadn’t worn since before Harry and Anne started at Hogwarts, Dobby was wearing a muggle Christmas elf costume and was helping him hand out all the presents.

“What do we have here?” said Sirius dramatically pulling out a large box.

Anne had already got the regular books and sweets from her family and friends as well as some new clothes from Tonks.

Sirius passed her the huge box which he rested on her lap, she groaned slightly under its weight.

“I wonder what’s in here?” she asked Teddy who was sitting next to her on Tonk’s lap.

She pulled the wrapping paper off from the box and lifted off the lid.

“It was Dad’s idea,” explained Tonks, “he knows you like Muggle music, so he thought he’d get you some classic films, I think they’re mostly musicals.”

There had to be at least twenty video tapes in this box, some were classic musicals such as West Side Story, The Sound of Music, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and Grease. There was also a couple of Disney films including Sleeping Beauty and Beauty and the Beast.

“Wow,” muttered Anne flicking through the box.

“It was Ted’s idea, but I picked them out,” said Remus, “I tried to pick the ones I thought you’d like.”

“I think there’s one more present left here,” said Sirius fishing one last box out of the pile.

“It says it is for you Anne,” said Sirius as he passed her the box.

Anne lifted the note that was attached to the small box.

“Dear Anne,

Sorry we had to borrow your what according to Lisa is called a Walk Man. Merlin, the names these Muggles seem to come up with!

We’ve been umm… improving it for you. It no longer needs you to put the tapes in, you tap the Walk Man with your wand and think about which song or album you want to hear.

We’ve transferred every record we could replace in the Common Room onto here, all of yours (yes even Monty Python!) and then we asked around to borrow everyone else’s, its been a hell of a lot of work. If you want, we can show you how to add extra songs after the holidays.

We’ve also enchanted it so that you don’t have to wear those weird things over your ears, I think Lisa said they were ‘Headfones?’ Anyway you can still wear the Headfones if you want to listen on your own, but if you the take the Headfones out you can play the music out loud.

We hope you have a very Merry Christmas,

Terry and Michael.

“I can’t believe they nicked your bloody WalkMan,” said Harry as he read the letter whilst Anne unwrapped the box.

Her Walkman looked exactly like it used to the headphones were even still plugged in, she tapped the WalkMan and thought about The Seekers.

She pulled on her headphones and it had just started playing I’ll Never Find Another You.

“I don’t believe it,” said Anne pulling off her headphones, “it bloody works!”

They had Christmas lunch and then they all watched one of Anne’s new films on the television.

“So which one do you want?” asked Sirius as they riffled through the box.

“This one’s a good one,” said Remus pulling out The Sound of Music.

“You guys might not like it though,” he chuckled.

“Bedknobs and Broomsticks?” suggested Tonks vaguely remembering watching at her Gran’s when she was a kid.

They watched Bedknobs and Broomsticks and then Anne wanted to watch Sleeping Beauty, Sirius and Harry went out when she put the second film on. Both films were brilliant, and Anne couldn’t wait to watch all the others in the box.

A few days after Christmas, Irwin was invited around to stay the night, they set up the television and video player in Anne’s bedroom again so they could have some privacy.

“Which one do you want to watch?” asked Irwin going through the tapes with her whilst Sirius made them some popcorn.

Anne checked her watch and saw it was already eight o’clock, but they didn’t have anything in the morning.

“This one’s meant to be good,” said Anne pulling out a video tape box.

“It’s a bit long though,” she muttered.

“West Side Story?” Irwin asked looking at the cover.

“From the back of the box I think it’s a version of Romeo and Juliet, but in 1950’s New York.”

“And that’s a musical?” asked Irwin.

“Well seeing as there are people dancing on the back then yes,” nodded Anne.

“Sounds good to me,” Irwin shrugged taking the tape out of the box and inserting it into the player.

Sirius came in with the popcorn and then left the room leaving them in peace. Irwin pulled the duvet and some of the pillow onto the floor, they leaned against the bed sitting on the floor propped up the pillows snuggling into each other under the duvet.

Irwin pressed play on the video tape.

The film started and they watched the Sharks and Jets dance around New York city. The songs were beautiful, Anne particularly liked how they had adapted the balcony scene between Tony and Maria, singing Tonight to each other over the fire escape.

At the end of the film, Anne gripped onto Irwin as Maria screamed at the gang members pointing the gun at people, wondering how many bullets were left so she had enough left to kill herself too.

When the Shark’s helped the members of the Jet gang to carry Tony’s corpse, Anne was sobbing hysterically. The gangs were finally helping each other, but not until Tony had been killed.

“You ok Annie?” said Irwin as he put an arm around her comfortingly turning off the television.

“It was so sad,” she sobbed.

“It was a version of Romeo and Juliet,” Irwin reminded her.

“Yeah but Maria had to live with on without Tony, at least in Romeo and Juliet they both die!”

“It was only a film,” he chuckled lightly, “its ok Annie!”

“I know,” she muttered smiling slightly.

Anne and Irwin put the duvet and pillows back on the bed and went to sleep.

The rest of the holiday was full of excitement, staying up until gone midnight on New Year’s Eve to watch the fireworks from the room of Grimmauld Place, Harry trying to teach Teddy how to fly on a toy broomstick. Anne was almost sorry that she had to go back to school but she was excited to see all her friends.