The Flower and the Badger

Chapter 15

The wall behind Anna slid shut, enveloping her in darkness.
"Lumos." She muttered. The last thing she needed would be to fall down the stairs and break her neck. The stairs were made of stone, and when she stepped on them there was a small echoing sound, indicating that the room that she was in a rather large room. After descending for what had seemed like ages, Anna finally hit ground lever. In front of her was a stone with words etched on it:
Only the Chosen One may enter here. Whether that is you or not, we shall soon find out. You will face trials ahead. In order to pass them you must be selfless, brave of heart, and pure of soul."
"Well that made complete sense." Anna mumbled. There were torches on the wall, so she used Incendio to light them. She jumped as a man appeared. It wasn't Uther, thankfully. This man had shoulder length brown hair, and sparkling chocolate eyes.
"You destroyed Uther." He said. "You passed that test. But now you must pass another. Give up."
Anna blinked. That was the test? "Yeah, that's not happening."
"Give up and I can give you all that your heart desires. Wealth, fame."
"Unfortunately for you I don't want or care about any of that."
"What if I told you that I could bring your parents back?"
Anna's eyes widened. "W-what?"
He waved his hand and two people appeared. A man with raven black hair and hazel eyes, and a pair of glasses. If it weren't for the eyes he would look exactly like an older Harry. The woman had hair as fiery as Anna's own, and her eyes were the same brilliant green as her brother's.
"Mum..." Anna whispered. "Dad..."
"Anna..." Lily Potter smiled softly. "My darling girl. You've grown so much."
"We're so proud of you and Harry." James added. "How we wish that we could have been there with you."
"But you can change that." Lily continued. "Just give up on this foolish quest of yours, and then we can be together, a family."
It was then that Anna knew that these weren't really her parents. Her parents would want her to help someone who was innocent, not just give up on them. "No, I can't. And I won't. Adriana needs my help, and I'm not going to stop until she's been freed."
Just like that her parents were gone, and it was just Anna and the mystery man again.
"You passed the first test." The man said. "Not many people would give up the chance to have their loved ones come back from the dead. Continue down this passage and you will soon come upon your next trial." He vanished, and Anna had no choice but to continue on. She guessed that this must have been the test of selflessness, as it would have been selfish of her to choose her parents over Adriana. She walked for what seemed like ages. There was a roar, and a cave troll lumbered towards her, swinging his club.
Anna yelped and she jumped out of the way. "Not again!" She groaned. She'd had her fill of trolls last year. "Stupefy!" The spell seemed to just bounce off of the troll's chest, and only served to make him even angrier. He ran towards her, and Anna dove between his legs. Now that was something she could have gone the rest of her life without seeing. She quickly jumped to her feet. "Tarantellegra!" Once again the spell seemed to just bounce off of him. Obviously magic wasn't going to work down here. How the hell was she supposed to defeat him then? A sword appeared on the ground and she rolled her eyes as she grabbed it. What was it with medieval people and swords? She swing the sword and effectively sliced the troll in his leg, and the troll roared in pain. Angered, swung his club, and Anna just barely managed to avoid getting squashed to smithereens by it. She did a tuck and roll so that she was facing the troll's back. With a war cry she leapt into the air, piercing the troll in the back.
With a shriek the troll collapsed to the ground, dead. Anna panted heavily, wiping the sweat off of her brow. Obviously that was the trial to test her courage. All that was left was the trial to test the purity of her soul. Dropping the sword, she grabbed her wand again and continued to walk. There was a stone table, and on it there was an old parchment. Anna read the title: 'This is an account of what truly happened in the Druid village of Camelot on August 5, 1146, as witnessed by the warlock Merlin.'
Anna gasped. This was it, she had found it! Without a second thought she grabbed the parchment. Immediately a voice filled the room, and she felt a tightness in her chest, as though darkness threatened to consume her very being.
"You have passed all of the tests." The voice said. "But you have yet to face the darkness, or the power that it can yield, if you would only give in to it."
"Never!" Anna shouted,crying out as the darkness she felt constricted even tighter around her heart. "You can try and bribe me with all of the power in the world, and I will never give in! Power was what led Voldemort to kill my parents. And I will never be like him! I'd rather die!" There was a blinding flash and just like that, the darkness was gone, and Adriana stood in front of Anna.
"You've done it." Adriana said with a bright smile. "You passed all of the tests, the parchment is yours. You have finally freed me, Anna Potter, and for that you shall have my eternal thanks. Now I can finally move on to the afterlife, and reunite with my loved ones."
"Do me a favor?" Anna took a deep breath. "Tell my parents that I said hello?"
Adriana nodded. "I shall do that Anna. For that is the least I can do after all that you have done for me. Now go, show this parchment to your headmaster, make sure that the world knows the truth."
Adriana and the room around Anna began to disappear, and Anna suddenly found herself in the Hogwarts courtyard.
"Anna!!" Harry ran up to her. "What happened?!"
Anna grinned widely at him, holding up the parchment. "I did it Harry!"
His eyes widened. "Is that-"
"Merlin's account? Yeah. I did it, she's free." Anna looked up at the sky. If she didn't know better she could almost swear that there was an orb of light ascending to the heavens.
"Goodbye Adriana." Anna whispered, a small smile on her face. She was a bit saddened that she wouldn't get to see Adriana again, but she was also relieved. Now she could at least get a full night's sleep.
"Come on." She turned to her brother. "Let's get this to Dumbledore, then I believe that an owl to The Daily Prophet is in order."
The twins walked off, Anna feeling as though the weight of the world had finally been taken off of her shoulders.