The Flower and the Badger

Chapter 23

They left around ten the next morning. Anna had the time of her life. They went to the aquarium, where Mr. Granger bought her a stuffed penguin and got Hermione a seal. After they had finished at the aquarium, they went out for lunch. Originally Anna was just going to get a grilled cheese, but Mr. Granger said that this was a special occasion so both of the girls got salmon with steamed broccoli and wild rice. The Grangers even let the girls get soda. "Only this once." Mr. Granger said, pretending to be stern, making the girls giggle. Lunch was delicious, even better than the food that the Hogwarts house elves made. Once lunch was over, they decided to go to a park, because it was unseasonally warm for December. Naturally since the day had been going so well, something had to come along and screw everything up. That something was the Dursleys.
Anna and Hermione had been running around the park all afternoon, and they were all headed back to the car when they ran into Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia, Dudley, and Dudley's rat-faced friend Piers Polkiss.
"Annaliese..." Aunt Petunia said in a stiff voice.
"Why aren't you at that freak school?" Uncle Vernon smirked. "Get yourself kicked out already?"
"Actually she's spending Christmas with my family." Hermione said hotly. "And you must be the Aunt and Uncle that abuse her and Harry."
"Annaliese." Aunt Petunia chuckled nervously. "What lies have you been spreading about us?"
"Lies?" Anna scoffed. "I'm sorry, all I did was tell the truth about how you kept us locked away and beat me nearly half to death."
"They what?" Mrs. Granger gasped, covering her mouth with her hand.
"What else were we supposed to do?!" Uncle Vernon snapped. "It's not as if we can treat her normally, her being the freak that she is."
"Anna is one of the sweetest girls that I've ever had the pleasure of meeting!" The normally docile Mr. Granger was clearly pissed off now. "And now that I see where she has come from, it's no small miracle that she survived, let alone become the kind and caring girl that she is."
Uncle Vernon rolled his eyes. "You love her so much, why don't you have her spend the summers with you while you're at it?" The Dursleys and Piers all laughed, but Mr. Granger remained stone-faced. "Maybe I will."
His answer clearly took Uncle Vernon by surprise, because he stopped laughing and gaped at him. "You what?"
"I would be more than happy to have Anna spend the summer with us, and every summer and school holiday after that." He wrapped one arm around Mrs. Granger's waist and placed the other on Anna's shoulder. "Love, girls, we should be heading home. Good day, Mr. Dursley."

"What an absolutely horrid man!" Mrs. Granger exclaimed once they were all in the car and headed on their way home. "Anna, I didn't want to believe it, but after the way that your aunt and uncle behaved at the park, I suppose that I'll have to. And they've always treated you like this?" Anna nodded.
"Ever since I could remember.'
Mr. Granger was gripping the steering wheel so tightly that his knuckles had turned white. "You aren't going back to them, Anna. I'll take it to the courts if I have to." Anna looked at him in surprise. The fact that he was willing to go to such lengths to keep her safe, to make sure that she was protected and loved, it nearly overwhelmed her. Hermione hugged her tightly. "We'll make sure that those awful people never touch you ever again."
"Thank you..." Anna whispered as her eyes filled with tears. "I really don't deserve any of this."
"Nonsense." Mr. Granger said as they pulled out of the driveway. "You deserve at least the basics, and it seems like they aren't even giving you that."
As they began the trek from the driveway into the house, Hedwig came flying up, a letter in her beak. It was from Harry. He asked if Anna was having any fun and told her that both him and Ron missed her. Anna was quick to respond, saying that she was having the time of her life. She also told him about their encounter with the Dursleys, and about Mr. Granger's outburst. She sent Hedwig off and sat on her bed, holding her penguin close to her. The penguin was smooth as velvet, and soft to the touch.
"Someone's made themselves a new friend." Hermione teased her, and Anna blushed. "Shut up. I didn't hear you saying no to that adorable seal."
"How could I say no? Seals are my favorite animals besides otters. So what did Harry say in his letter?"
"He was just checking up on me. I told him what happened today with my aunt and uncle."
"I wish he could stay here too," Hermione said with a small sigh. "But we just don't have the room."
"Maybe Ron will offer to let Harry spend the summer with him, or something."
"It wouldn't surprise me if Ronald asked him that. Oh! I almost forgot." Hermione pulled out her History of Magic textbook.
"Mione, we're on holiday, we aren't supposed to be studying."
Hermione rolled her eyes. "I wasn't studying. I was looking through this earlier this morning before we left to see if I could find any mention of the crucifix on your neck. I was right, it is connected to Adriana Petrival."
This piqued Anna's interest immediately. "Really? What did you find?"
"It's actually quite interesting. Apparently Adriana had a large group of followers, and all of her followers branded themselves."
"Let me guess." Anna said. "They branded a crucifix onto their collarbones."
Hermione nodded. "But here's where it gets a bit odd. For such a supposedly dark witch, her followers weren't dark, none of them. They were bakers, blacksmiths. Many of her followers were also Muggle borns, so obviously Adriana didn't have the same pure-blooded views as you-know-who."
Anna pondered this for a minute or two. "So this just helps to prove the fact she wasn't the monster that Merlin had made her out to be."
"Exactly. Which makes me wonder if Merlin was maybe trying to cover something up."
Anna nodded; that made sense. "As soon as we get back to school, I'm going to go to the library and try to figure this out."
"I'll help you when I can, but I'm also trying to help the boys figure out who Nicolas Flamel is."
"How's that going by the way?" Anna asked. "I've been meaning to help, but all of the Transfiguration homework that McGonagall gives me just leaves me worn out at the end of the day."
"It's going slowly." Hermione sighed. "And Hagrid is no help. I know that he knows who Nicolas Flamel is, but he refuses to tell us anything about it."
Anna nodded again. Hagrid was great at spilling secrets...unless it was one that they absolutely needed to know about, such as with Nicolas Flamel.
"How is Transfiguration going?" Hermione seemed slightly jealous of the fact that Anna was in an advanced class and she wasn't. Anna shrugged. "It's alright, I suppose. The course is more difficult, but I enjoy it. I'm surprised that Pansy hasn't taunted me about it, but I guess that she figured I'm being bullied enough with the whole staging an attack on Fred thing."
Hermione sighed sadly. "I'm sorry, you don't deserve to be ostracized like this."
"Mione, it's okay, really. The people that truly matter know the truth."
Hermione nodded. "I suppose. Plus the truth will come out eventually."
"Exactly." Anna smiled at her. "I just have to be patient, that's all."
"It seems like you're surrounded by bullies. If it isn't Draco or Pansy, then it's your aunt and uncle."
"Although if your dad has anything to say in the matter, that'll soon change."
Hermione started to fiddle with her thumbs. "I hope that everything works out."
"I'm sure that it will." Anna patted her shoulder. "You just need to have faith. Try not to worry about it." Anna started to laugh. "I should really take my own advice, shouldn't I?"
"That would be a smart idea." Hermione giggled. "I suppose that we should both have more faith, shouldn't we?"
"It's something that we can work on together."

Once more both the girls were called down for dinner. Tonight was hamburgers with potatoes and cole slaw. Mr. Granger obviously wanted Anna to forget all about what had happened that afternoon in the park with the Dursleys, because he talked about everything under the sun. Anna was happy to converse with him.
"Tomorrow is Christmas Eve." He said as he put a small blob of mustard on his burger. "I thought that we might go out to the country and get ourselves a tree to decorate."
"You mean a live one?" Anna asked. The Dursleys had never gotten a live evergreen tree before, they always used a fake, plastic one that they kept stored in the attic.
"We'll be leaving bright and early tomorrow so you two better get some rest tonight." Mr. Granger advised. After dinner was done and the dishes were put away, Mrs. Granger shooed the girls up the stairs so that they could get ready for bed. Anna brushed her teeth and got her pajamas on quickly. She was so tired that she didn't even think about Adriana Petrival at all, and she fell asleep the instant that her head touched her pillow.