The Girl Who Vanished

Chapter 23: In Plain Sight

Ana awoke with a start; the sun had hardly risen over the vast acreage that surrounded the English manor. The hairs on the back of her neck stood tall and shaky, making her shiver and grow still. The disturbance, whatever it was, remained situated just on the other side of her second story window. Cautiously, the young girl drew her wand from her bedside table. With small steps, she inched her way towards the curtains.

She jumped once more as a loud screech deafened her. Whatever time it was, it was too early to be attacked, Ana thought as her cold fingers ghosted over the willowy fabric that covered her window. In a fell swoop, she tore the sheet away from the glass and thrusted the panels open aggressively. Hopefully, she could scare whatever was scaring her.

However, the only thing that Ana was faced with, was a small gray and brown owl that stood no more than ten inches tall. Its eyes looked in separate directions making it the cookiest bird she had ever seen in all of her fourteen years of life.

It chirped happily at her as it hobbled along her window sill. Her eyes were barely open since having her sleep interrupted, even so, she smiled curiously as she tugged a small rolled up scroll off the leg of the small creature. It pecked at the eroding stone that sat between the manor's brick before taking off into the shimmering sky.

A chill of summer's dawn chilled her skin, coercing Ana to slam her window shut and climb back into bed. She quickly flicked the light on her floor lamp; just allowing herself enough light to read her early morning letter without alerting her family that she was awake.

It wasn't usual for the girl to be up at such an hour.

Ana smiled down at the letter as soon as her eyes settled on an illustration of a snake began to slither around the edges of the parchment. Such silly incantations, she thought as she uncurled the aged paper.

"Greetings there, snake."

There's only one person who would talk to Ana like this, the girl rolled her eyes at the strange introduction. Despite it being juvenile, she settled into her bed even more: laying on her stomach to cradle the letter in her hands as she continued reading.

"I know you're probably wondering, how in the world did this bugger get my address. Well, I'll have you know that I have my ways. My brother and I have a way of figuring things out, you know. Speaking of, he says hi. I would have messaged sooner, but the family and I have been in Egypt and getting our owl Errol to your place from ours while in Egypt has been a task all on its own. Either way, Dad won a raffle from the Daily Prophet, so I have been spending my time acting like Indiana Jones over here. You probably don't know who that is."

He was right. Ana's brows scrunched in confusion over the weird term. She'd have to ask Calista all about it when she saw her in a few days.

"I'll be honest, I don't really know who Mr. Jones is either. My dad says he's so muggle adventurer who has ran through tombs and things. I've been in the catacombs in Egypt! Do you know how cool that is? I mean, you kinda live in a dungeon being a Slytherin and all. But I think running in an Egyptian tomb is a bit niftier than being chased by a troll in the basement of Hogwarts. Or being hunted by a basilisk. Maybe you're Indiana Jones, Beebs."

There it was again. That dang nickname he had for her. She never knew where or how he concocted all these new monikers for her. Ana had told them to call her Ana, but it seemed like Fred did anything but call her by her given name.

Her smile opposed her supposed distaste for the title he had bestowed upon her.

"Anyway, it'll be cool to see you soon. We'll be heading over to Diagon Alley, staying there a bit when we come back from holiday. It's been a rather long summer. A fun one, though.