A Whole Different World

Chapter 23 - Hogsmeade

Anna pulled a jumper over her head and slid gloves onto her hands; the weather was cold that day in Hogsmeade. Anna loved going there; she thought that if she could, she would always be there. Honeydukes was fantastic, there was always such a large range of sweets that she would have never thought existed! She loved ice mice, and liquorice wands. She was going with Mackenzie, Taylor, and Aneesha. Eden was with Draco, and Laura was with Oliver. Anna felt slightly angry at them for ditching them for boys. Ella wasn't going to Hogsmeade, she said she felt unwell and Anna knew it was because of the business with the necklace. Keira's mum wouldn't sign her permission note so she stayed back with Ella in the castle, and Amy, Catherine, and Gillian stayed at the castle, they liked how quiet it was. Christmas was only around the corner, but Anna felt miserable. The dementors around the castle were just awful, and she couldn't begin to explain the fear in people at the thought of Sirius Black. She was hoping that a day in Hogsmeade with her friends would cheer her up.

Anna went to the entrance hall to meet the others, they weren't there yet but that didn't surprise her. Laura was in the corner talking to Oliver, Anna knew they liked each other but there was an age difference between them which meant that it was Oliver's final year at Hogwarts. After a while Anna started to get bored of standing alone, so she stood with Neville, who was waiting for Dean and Seamus. She enjoyed Neville's company, he was very nice and she hated when brats like Draco were rude to him. In some ways Anna was curious to know what Eden sees in Draco, was he decent underneath his many layers of mean?

Eventually Mackenzie came, and soon after that Taylor and Aneesha arrived too. They set off with the other students to Hogsmeade. Anna couldn't help but smile as Aneesha chatted excitedly about Zonkos, and Mackenzie decided that she will buy at least eight items in Honeydukes. Taylor and Anna laughed as the two of them argued about which is better - every flavour beans or chocolate frogs? Anna personally preferred every flavour beans, she disliked chocolate.

"Can I ask you guys something?" Mackenzie asked once she and Aneesha had settled down.

"Sure," Taylor smiled.

"What are your boggarts?" She asked, she had seen Anna's in Defence but she said it anyway,

"My family not wanting me anymore." Anna answered.

"My sister d-dead," Taylor stuttered, "And what about you Mackenzie?"

"A masked figure stealing my baby brother." she shuddered. They all looked expectantly at Aneesha, she had her head down and was looking at her shoes, Anna couldn't see her face but she could assume that she wasn't smiling. She whipped her head up in the realization that they were all watching her.

"Oh," she let out a breath she had been holding, "I'm going to sound so idiotic when I say it. I will sound so damn selfish."

"I'm sure you won't. Don't be scared, it's not real." Anna replied.

"I didn't even understand yours, you know, when it happened in class." Taylor said to Aneesha.

"I don't think anyone did, I didn't at first either." Aneesha said, there was something about her voice that made her sound grown-up.

"If you feel up to it, could you explain?" Mackenzie asked, Aneesha slowly nodded her head.

"When it came to my turn I thought of what scares me most, but I had no idea what that was. I was still trying to figure it out when it changed. It changed into one of the twins, and I was confused, I am not scared of one of the twins. Then it hit me, that there was a reason there was only one of them. The other twin was dead. And I just felt so terrible, for myself and for the Weasley's. And now I'm just really pissed off with myself." Aneesha's face was red, and Anna could hear the strain in her voice as she spoke.

"That's not selfish, Aneesha. That's not selfish at all." Taylor said firmly, breaking the brief uncomfortable silence that occurred after Aneesha spoke.

"Yes it is." Aneesha grumbled.

"No, it isn't!" Mackenzie exclaimed, "You said you felt terrible for the Weasley's, that's not selfish!"

"But all of you guys had fears relating to family, and I didn't even think about mine. I love my family but all I could think about were some boys. I'm disgusted with myself." her voice was cracking as she spoke. They were standing outside Honeydukes at this point.

"But after you saw your boggart, you thought about the Weasley family right?" Anna asked, Aneesha nodded, "You did think about family, their family. You were concerned with how they were going to cope after one of the twins deaths. If that doesn't show how selfless you are, then I don't know what does."

Aneesha just gave her friends a small smile and stepped into Honeydukes.

By the time they left Hogsmeade they all had their arms full of shopping. Mackenzie ended up buying more than eight items in Honeydukes, and was eating a cauldron cake as they met up in the entrance hall with Eden and Laura.

"Have a nice date?" Taylor winked at Laura,

"It wasn't a date!" she exclaimed and added, "But yes."

"Ooh." Eden teased; Laura gave her a light tap on the head.

"I guess we should head back to the common room now." Taylor led Aneesha up the stairs, Eden and Laura went down the stairs. Mackenzie gave Anna a quick smile before walking away. Anna let herself smile, despite the talk of boggarts, the scare of escaped murderers, and the dementors roaming the grounds; she had had a great day.

*****

Laura had spent most of the next day waiting for a chance to talk to Ella about the necklace. She wanted to know what she had done with it after she picked it up; had she taken it or put it down?

Her question was answered after dinner that night. Laura had quickly caught up with Ella as she left the great hall and told her that she saw her grab the necklace. Laura's heart froze for a second as Ella pulled the necklace out from under her shirt.

"You-you don't feel something odd about that necklace?" Laura asked Ella when Ella noticed her widened eyes.

"No...It feels fantastic," at Laura's confused expression Ella added, "I'll explain, come with me."

Ella brought her to a deserted corridor and explained everything that professors Snape and Lupin had told her.