The Flower and the Badger

Chapter 5

Three months. That was how long Anna had been in a coma for. Three long months of waiting for Cedric. It was March now. Springtime, the time of new beginnings. Blaise hadn't been able to find anything, although Cedric questioned if he had ever really looked at all. The others had given up hope; Sirius was acting like Anna was dead. Cedric and Remus were the only ones who had hope anymore, and even Remus' hope was starting to get kind of slim. "I'm sorry Cedric, but maybe it's time..."

"No!" Cedric shook his head vehemently. "No, I refuse to believe that there isn't any hope of her being able to come back. She will come back, she has to."

"Cedric, her body has all but shut down." Remus sighed softly. "I know that you don't like it, none of us do." Remus bit his lip. Anna's body was decaying, soon there wouldn't be anything of her left. If Anna was going to wake up, it would have to be soon.

Anna looked at Dumbledore. "Sir, how do I even get back?"

"The dark magic from the curse is still raging against you, you have to fight against it with the pure, light magic that is inside of you. I have complete faith that you can do it." And just like that, Dumbledore was gone.

"Great talk." Anna muttered. "Big help you are Alby." She sighed softly. Fight against the dark magic....How the bloody hell was she going to do that?

"My my, you're stronger than I thought you were."

Anna turned to face Kate. Or who looked like Kate anyways. It was actually a manifestation of the dark magic inside of her body, taking shape of the person that she feared the most. Anna went to withdraw her wand, but it wasn't there.

"No wand to help you this time." Kate sneered. "You're on your own."

"No, she isn't."

Anna's eyes widened at who was now by her side. It was Merlin.

"Anna is far more powerful than what you give her credit for. You think that you can make her fall so easily? Then you are a fool. Anna is strong, she was able to defeat Uther Pendragon."

"Yes, but she needed the help of his son to do that."

"And now she has me to help her." Merlin looked down at Anna. "I think that it's high time I pay you back for what you did for Adriana." He then turned to face Kate again. "Begone, you have no power here."

Kate lunged at him, but with a snap of Merlin's fingers, she disappeared in a puff of smoke. "Now, I think it's time that we got you back to your friends Anna."

"But I don't even know how to get back! Dumbledore wasn't exactly clear in his instructions."

"Just believe in yourself Anna, believe in your abilities." Merlin gave her a smile before vanishing.

Believe in herself huh? He made it sound so easy. Anna sighed, taking a deep breath. "I'm fairly certain that I believe in myself, so what the hell else needs to be done? Click my heels three times and say there's no place like home?"

A gentle breeze blew past her, as though to say this was exactly what she needed to do. "Oh, you gotta be kidding me." Anna grumbled. "I'm not Dorothy for crying out loud." She rolled her eyes. "If Cedric finds out about this, he's going to tease me to no end." She sighed as she clicked her heels together once, twice, three times. "There's no place like home."

The wind blew, then suddenly there was nothing beneath Anna's feet, and she was falling.

Anna awoke with a small gasp as she looked around. She was at Peggy's house, laying on her bed. She could hear voices outside of the room, which she recognized as Peggy's and Cedric's.