Anna Potter and the Deathly Hollows

Chapter 10

TOWN CENTER - NIGHT
[All light has left the sky. The stooped figure hobbles along, past the pub, where shadows play against the windows and muffled voices can be heard. Anna and Rose follow.]
NARROW ALLEY - NIGHT
[Rose eyes the woman ahead, then looks about their surroundings, feeling trapped.]
Rose: I don't think this is a good idea.
"I agree." Said Remus.
Anna: We look like ordinary Muggles.
Rose: Muggles who've just been laying
flowers on your parents' grave.
"Listen to Rose!" Said Lily.
[Just then, up ahead, the stooped woman holds up her hand and Rose and Anna stop. Seconds later, a group of snatchers passes by the alley. As they vanish, the woman continues on.]
Anna: Relax. This is right. I know it.
LANE - NIGHT
[The woman hobbles on. The lane is lined with modest cottages with small and tidy gardens. Rose barely gives them a glance, nervously eyeing the woman ahead, before realizing she is walking alone. She turns, sees Anna standing several yards back, staring at a dark cottage, its garden overgrown with weeds, its roof entirely covered in ivy and snow. Rose returns to her, looks. Gasps.]
Rose: Oh my god. Anna...
Anna: This is where they died, Rose. This is where he murdered them.
James and Lily look at Anna sadly.
[Rose studies Anna's bitter profile, then the house, careful not to disturb the moment with words. Without turning, while still staring at the house, Anna speaks:]
Anna: You're Bathilda, aren't you?
[Rose blinks, confused, then turns and jumps. The old woman is standing only yards away, watching them.]
"She seems different." Said James.
BATHILDA BAGSHOT'S HOUSE - NIGHT
[The door rattles open and tiny Bathilda Bagshot hobbles inside, followed first by Anna, then Rose, who wrinkles her nose. As Bathilda exits the room, Rose glances about.]
Rose: Anna, I'm not sure about this.
"Why is she not talking?" Asked Lily.
"Bathilda i know never shuts up. Something is wrong." Said nervous James.
"You think it's polyjuice?" Asked Sirius.
"I don't know." Said worried James.
Anna: Rose, she knew Dumbledore. She might have the sword. Besides, she's barely knee-high to a house-elf. I think we can overpower her if it turns ugly.
Rose: There's something odd about her.
"She should listen to Rose! At least this time!" Said frustrated and worried Lily.
Rose: And what's that smell?
Anna: She's gaga, remember? [Bathilda returns, holding a box of matches. She strikes one, tries to light a candle, but her movements are clumsy.]
Anna: Here. Let me do that.
Rose: You have a lovely house, Miss Bagshot. [Rose eyes a photograph of a curiously compelling young girl (Ariana), then runs a finger along a table. It comes away thick with dust. She frowns, looks up, finds Bathilda watching her.]
Anna: Miss Bagshot? Who is this man?
[Anna stands by a chest of drawers, holding the match over a grouping of photographs. Coated in dust, the figures in the frames flit like ghosts behind veils. Anna picks one up, wipes away the dust with her hand. In it a merry-faced boy looks out, her cheery expression belying a particularly intense gaze.]
Anna: His name. Can you tell me his
name? [Bathilda stares at the photograph solemnly, then peers up at Anna. Her eyes are thick with cataracts. Anna stares, unnerved, then Rose walks over, looks at the picture.]
"Something is very wrong! They need to get out!" Said Remus.
Anna: This is him, Rose. The one I saw in Gregorovitch's wandshop. The thief. Miss Bagshot, who is he? [She looks at him, then jerks her head toward the stairs.]
Anna: She wants us to go upstairs.
Rose: All right... [As Rose moves, Bathilda shakes her head, points at Anna.]
Anna: She wants me to go. Alone.
"Why is she not talking? And why alone?! I have a bad feeling about this." Said Sirius. Everyone agreed.
Rose: Why?
Anna: It's all right. You stay here.
Rose: Anna... [Anna holds up her hand, silencing her, then follows Bathilda. Just before she disappears, she looks back and winks, but Rose doesn't look reassured.]
Neither do audience.
SERPENTINE STAIRCASE - NIGHT
[Anna trails Bathilda up a circular staircase, uncomfortably narrow and lined with books.]
BAGSHOT HOUSE - SITTING ROOM - CLOSE ON A BOOK - NIGHT
[The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore. A hand reaches in, takes it. Rose's hand. A note is attached: "Dear Batty. Thanks for your help. You said everything... even if you don't remember. Rita."]
"What does she mean don't remember?" Said Lily.
"Imperio. We all know it's not above Rita." Said Sirius.
BAGSHOT HOUSE - BEDROOM - SAME TIME - NIGHT
[Anna enters a dark low-ceilinged room. She wrinkles her nose at the smell, then hears the door close behind her. The room plunges into darkness.]
Anna: Lumos. [Anna sweeps the room, gives a start. Bathilda's face wavers in the dark, only feet away, staring at her.]
"I don't like this." Said Barty.
HALLWAY - SAME TIME - NIGHT
[Rose hugs herself as she exits the sitting room and peers into the adjacent hallway. A sliver of the kitchen can be seen and a faint buzzing heard. A strange shadow dances on one kitchen wall, of specks moving. Rose approaches.]
BAGSHOT HOUSE - BEDROOM - SAME TIME - NIGHT
[Anan watches as Bathilda moves closer, transfixed by her milky eyes.]
Bathilda Bagshot: (in Parseltongue) You are Potter?
"How?!" Said James. Everyone is nervous.
Anna: (in Parseltongue) Yes.
BAGSHOT HOUSE - HALLWAY/KITCHEN - SAME TIME - NIGHT
[As Rose nears the kitchen, she eyes the cloud of specks swarming the wall curiously. The buzzing grows to a hiss as the room... comes into view. Rose gasps. Clotted blood streaks the sink and great wide swaths of red stain the floor where hundreds of flies swarm.]
"What the-?" Said Remus. Everyone is worried.
Bathilda Bagshot: (O.S.) (in Parseltongue) I have something for you... [Rose's gaze rises, to the ceiling, to the heating vent, from which the hissing voice has just come.]
People watch tensed up.
BAGSHOT HOUSE - BEDROOM - SAME TIME - NIGHT
[Anna's arm droops, her wand tip painting the room with dots of light as she sways, wincing as her scar stings. Bathilda points, to a dressing table cluttered with soiled laundry, her milky eyes fixed on Anna. Something surfaces in her filmy corneas, her pupils changing from dots to silts.]
SERPENTINE STAIRCASE - SAME TIME - NIGHT
[Rose, wand drawn, ascends the stairs.]
BAGSHOT HOUSE - BEDROOM - NIGHT
[Anna peers at the foul laundry, moving closer, when, out of the corner of her eye, Bathilda moves weirdly. She wheels and watches in horror as... Bathilda's old body collapses and Nagini pours from her neck.]
"Holy fuck!" Said Barty.
"What is happening?" Said confused and scared Lily.
"How did snake do that?!" Yelled Sirius.
[As Anna raises her wand, Nagini strikes, piercing her forearm. Her wand flies out of her hand, its light spinning dizzily around the room. Nagini's tail swings about, knocks Anna's legs out from under her.]
Everyone watches Anna worried.
Rose: (O.S.) Anna! [As Anna rolls onto her back, gasping for breath, Nagini's massive body rolls over her. As Anna roars in pain, the lenses of her glasses fracture.]
"Anna!" Yelled Lily, Barty and Marauders.
[The bedroom door swings open, reveals Rose silhouetted against the stairwell, wand poised. A flash of red light ricochets around the room and Nagini's tail whips angrily about, shattering the bedroom window. Rose dives aside and Anna covers her face as the curtains burst into flames and shards of glass shower the room in a rush of cold air. As Anna reclaims her wand and rises, Nagini's body uncoils in fury, splintering furniture and blasting holes into the walls.]
Everyone is on edge.
Rose: Confringo! [As Rose's spell caroms off the trembling walls, we see both her and Anna reflected in a mirror. She leaps, sweeping her toward the smoldering window. As they pitch themselves into the night, the mirror explodes and shards of glass, reflecting bits of Rose and Anna and the giant snake, tumble in the night, slowly vanishing into... nothingness.]
RIVER/WOODS (FOREST OF DEAN) - DAY
[Weirdly quiet. Like the memory of a day long ago. A lone figure -- Rose -- walks from the river to the woods, a pail of water in hand, leaving silent footprints in the FROST that glitters on the ground.]
TENT (FOREST OF DEAN) - EARLY MORNING
[Darkness. For a moment, we hear nothing. Then, Rose's voice softly whispers:]
Rose: (O.S.) Anna... Anna, can you hear me...?
Anna: (O.S.) Yes.
Everyone sights out in relief.
"I swear she will give me a heart attack." Muttered Lily.
Rose: (O.S.) Good. That's good...
Anna: (O.S.) We got away.
Rose: (O.S.) Yes.
Anna: (O.S.) Are you alright?
Rose: (O.S.) I'm fine. But you've been sick. Rest... Rest a bit more... [All stays dark...]
TENT (FOREST OF DEAN) - MORNING
[Rose sits reading a book by the fire. The hillside is glorious, overlooking a vast valley.]
Anna: (O.S.) You've outdone yourself this time. [Rose turns, finds Anna standing outside the tent, admiring the view.]
Rose: The Forest of Dean. I came here once with my parents and sibling, years ago. It's just how I remember it. The trees. The river. It's like nothing's changed. Not true, of course. Everything's changed. [Anna pattes Rose's arm in comfort.]
Rose: You wanted to know who the boy in the photograph was. Well, I know.
[Rose holds up the book in her lap: The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore.]
Rose: It was in Bathilda's sitting room. Rita Skeeter had sent it to her. Anna, it doesn't make for very nice reading --
Anna: Who is he, Rose? The thief? Did Dumbledore know him?
Rose: Yes.
Anna: Well?
Rose: For a time.
Anna: Tell me, Rose. Who is he?
Rose: Gellert Grindelwald.
Everyone gaped at screen.
Rose: He's not very well known in Britain, but there was a time, before You-Know-Who...
Anna: I know who Gellert Grindelwald is. [Rose nods, hands her the book, open to a photograph of a teenaged Dumbledore laughing with another boy (Gellert Grindelwald). The caption: "For the Greater Good? Dark Days; Dumbledore and Grindelwald." On the opposite page is a photograph of Grindelwald in later days, clad in black, holding a jagged wand -- no longer the carefree lad of youth.]
"Dumbledore was besties with Gridelwald?" Said stunned Lucius.
Rose: When Grindelwald was seventeen, he was expelled from Durmstrang. He'd started doing some twisted things at school -- experiments. A few teachers had always protected him, but they couldn't anymore. After he left, he traveled for awhile, then ended up in Godric's Hollow where his great aunt lived, Bathilda Bagshot.
Anna: Get to the hard part, Rose.
Rose: She introduced him to Dumbledore. It made sense. Dumbledore's mother had just died, Grindelwald was troubled and they were both brilliant -- they'd never really had anyone they could talk to on the same level. They did a lot of talking that summer. But they always returned to one particular subject. [Anna looks up.]
Rose: Wizard rule over Muggles.
"Fuck me." Said Regulus and everyone looked at Regulus in shock.
"Dumbledore was blood supermacist?" Said stunned Sirius.
Anna: And Dumbledore believed in it?
Rose: Yes. [Anna nods, looking at the photograph again.]
Anna: 'For the Greater Good.' What does that mean?
Rose: It was something Dumbledore came up with. He believed wizards were superior and should rule over Muggles, but gently, for their own good. Grindelwald took a more violent position. [Anna shakes her head, staring at the book.]
Everyone is still in shock from new information.
Rose: It was a different time, Anna. It was one summer. Dumbledore was young and angry at the world. He made mistake, but he changed, Anna. Years later, it was Dumbledore who put Grindelwald in prison.
"And he made many rules that were good for muggleborns and fought for our rights." Said Lily.
Anna: I know. I don't need you to protect him, Rose. [Anna stares at the photograph of the laughing thief one last moment, then tosses the book away.]
Anna: Where's my wand? I'll take the watch. [Rose hesitates. Her expression makes her apprehensive.]
Anna: Rose. Where's my wand?
[She points. There, lying by the fire, is a shattered stick. She picks it up gently, sees that it is nearly severed in two. One fragile strand of phoenix feather holds it together.]
Gryffindors+Rosekiller look at wand sadly.
Rose: It's my fault. As we were leaving Godric's Hollow, I cast a curse and it rebounded... I'm sorry, Anna, I tried to mend it but wands are different --
Anna: It's done.
Rose: Maybe we can --
Anna: It's done. [Her tone puts an end to it. Rose nods.]
Anna: Leave me yours. You get back in the warm. [Rose starts to speak, then simply hands it over. She starts to leave, pauses.]
Rose: He loved you, Anna. I know he loved you.
TENT (FOREST OF DEAN) - NIGHT
[The fire is merely embers. Anna sits with a frostencrusted blanket draped over her shoulders, staring bitterly into the dark forest. The silence is eerie, shadows play in the trees. She peers through the tent flap and sees Rose slumbering in the light of a small bowl of flames, than looks back at forest. Anna starts to sing her (Ellie Goulding's) song "My blood".]
Anna: That feeling that doesn't go away just did
And I walked a thousand miles to prove it
And I'm caught in the crossfire of my own thoughts
The color of my blood is all I see on the rocks
As you sail from me
Alarms will ring for eternity
The waves will break every chain on me
My bones will bleach
My flesh will flee
So help my lifeless frame to breathe
And God knows I'm not dying but I breathe now.
Everyone looks at Anna sadly.
Anna: And God knows it's the only way to heal now
With all the blood I lost with you
It drowns the love I thought I knew
The lost dreams are buried in my sleep for her
And this was the ecstasy of a love forgotten
And I'm thrown in the gunfire of empty bullets
And my blood is all I see
As you steal my soul from me
Alarms will ring for eternity
The waves will break every chain on me
And God knows I'm not dying but I breathe now
And God knows it's the only way to heal now
With all the blood I lost with you
It drowns the love I thought I knew
Ohhh, ohh oh [x6]
"Why does her every song have to be heartbreaking?" Said gloomy Lily.
"She doesn't have many things to be happy for." Answered Sirius. Everyone looked at young girl with piy.
Anna: And God knows I'm not dying but I breathe now
And God knows it's the only way to heal now
With all the blood I lost with you
It drowns the love I thought I knew
And God knows I'm not dying but I breathe now
And God knows it's the only way to heal now
With all the blood I lost with you
It drowns the love I thought I knew.
[Anna takes out drawing from her jacket.]