Riddle Me This

Unsolvd Questions and the Answers to Them

"This isn't a dream?" I sobbed as I held Mom tighter. "Are you actually awake, Mom?"

"Thank goodness," Mom whispered, "I thought they killed you. I'm so happy." The only words I could hear were the words coming out of my mother's mouth. I couldn't hear another soul other than her and my own.

"Mom, I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry I kept pressuring you into telling me who my father was. I'm so sorry I've troubled you all those years!" I cried as she stroked my head.

"It's okay, it's okay. That was so long ago, you couldn't have helped yourself." She whispered as she tucked a few strands of hair behind my ear. II continued ot cry, but my mother wasn't crying at all.

"There, there. Crying does nothing but tire the eyes. I hate seeing those sad eyes of yours." She smiled sadly as she tipped my chin up. "Come on, let's go home now. We have two years to catch up on." I swallowed my tears as I nodded and gestured to Draco again.

Even Draco was smiling as I ran over to him and embraced him. I sobbed the last of my tears into Draco's chest as he embraced me back. I was happy, of course I was. But just seeing her again, brought back the flood of emotions and memories that happened at the Death Chamber. The blood stains on her shirt, her hair looked like it was touched by lightning. She was coughing up blood. "Let's go home." I smiled at Draco as I pushed Mom down the platform.

***

We had arrived home, only this time I actually saw it as my home. When I was little, I used to believe that I was a princess and I lived in a beautiful kingdom and I had special powers, to distract myself from believing I was a freak. As I got older, I saw it like a pillow-decorative on the outside and plain on the inside.

During the aftermath of the Death Chamber fiasco, I saw it as a haunted mansion. I hardly ever swept the floors, let alone leave my room.

But when I looked at my house with Mom for the first time in two years, I saw it again as a palace of wonder and magnificence.

"Oh, the house looks beautiful." Mom gasped. What was she talking about? I thought. The house looked the same, and I thought she had already come home once she left the hospital.

"Hmm, that's one way to describe it." Auntie Rue smiled as she took out a rose gold key with two teeth and inserted it into the lock, the faintest click sound could be heard.

I was home.

When we entered the house, it looked untouched, like a dollhouse out of it's package. The dust was unswept, you could see your face in the dishes, and the floor was as good as new. There was no sign of any living thing that had inhabited the household in the past six months. "Well," Mom breathed, "We certainly have some cleaning to do around here."

"Mom, you're sure you're not tired?" I asked Mom again.

"No, Charlie!" Mother protested. "Oh, you kids worrying about your old mother here." She smiled at me again and sat down, taking a sip from her special teacup with pink roses.

"Annie, I'll go into town and prepare lunch. I'll let you three be, you have lots to catch up on. I also have to pick up Callie and Essie, so don't expect me to come early." Auntie Rue walked out the door and apparated into thin air.

"Annie?" Draco asked.

"Anne is Mom's middle name." I answered for him. I turned to Mom and took out the little purple book, making her gasp.