Annabella The Sidekick (Sequal To Defiance)

Chapter 61

•Annabella's POV•

    I wake up to a pounding head. Ugh what happened? I sit up and look around. Everything looks clean and neat. I'm in my bedroom at home. How did I get here?
    Then I remember. The war, the battle, and needing the twins to live. I saw it before anyone else. I dove for the twins and landed on top of Fred. I saw a piece of stone and that was it.
    Standing at the foot of my bed is a surprise. Albus Percival Wolfric Brian Dumbledore is staring at me. I'm not an idiot, I know what it means if I'm seeing him. "Am I dead?"
    The headmaster smiles and there's a twinkle in his eye as he replies. "Theoretically speaking, yes." I flop onto my back with a sigh. I knew this could happen. I knew I probably wouldn't live when I decided to protect the twins.
    "Where am I Professor?" I ask Dumbledore. "You're in-between I'm afraid," he replies. I nod to myself as I let this information sink it. I don't want to be dead but I made my decision.
    "Although Mrs. Black, I do believe that Mr. Weasley is attempting to use some very dark magic to resurrect you." Panic floods my body and I sit up straight. "He can't!" I yell.
    "I'm afraid he can. When you go back there is a task you must do," Dumbledore says.
    "What is it?"
    "When you return, you must go into hiding immediately. Nobody must know you are alive until it's most vital. I have no doubt that Harry Potter will defeat Voldemort but the evil is not yet over. In the future you must return. You must make people strong."
    What? I can't go into hiding! I have s future! I have a family and friends and even a fiancé. "Why can't anyone know I'm alive?"
    "Mrs Black, this evil force will take any means necessary in order to weaken Harry. He will be weak now but when the evil returns so will you. You will make him strong enough. If it is found out you are alive now, you will be killed."
    I'm still panicking but I understand his words. "Be still when you return to your body. Your mother, Tonks, and Remus send their love." Tonks and Remus are dead? No. They just had a baby. Teddy.
    I can't explain what I begin to feel but it's like I'm fading away. It's scary. If my heart was beating it would be about to explode. "Good luck Mrs. Black."
    I take a deep breath but then stop breathing. There is crying. People are sobbing and screaming. I don't know what to do but someone is yelling to come outside and the room is silent.
    I open my eyes and everyone is gone. Well everyone except for the people on the floor. The ones who aren't moving. The ones who aren't breathing. Tonks and Remus are there too, hands reaching for one another even in death.
    I don't know what I'm going to do yet but the first step is escape.
•Third Person POV•
    The battle has been won. Voldemort is dead once and for all. Everyone is relieved but they are still broken people. Loved ones are dead, never to return.
    When the Weasleys, Regulus, and Harry walk back into the Great Hall they're shocked. The body of Annabella Black is gone. There is nothing on the floor where she was lying.
    "What kind of twisted freak would do this?" Fred yells. He's disgusted and horrified. Someone has taken the body of his best friend.
    George knows better than to feel hopeful but he can't help it. Maybe she's alive. Maybe she's looking for us. He knows better, he really does. He knows that she was dead. He knows the spell didn't work.
    The months that follow are terrible. Regulus Black won't leave his room. Why should he? The things that are most precious to him are gone.
    Harry Potter doesn't know what to say. The body of his cousin, no his sister, was stolen. He will never see her smile again.
    Ginny Weasley is broken. She and Harry lie on the couch together unmoving for hours. Sometimes they cry, sometimes they talk, but most of the time they're silent.
    George Weasley can't be bothered to get out of bed. His door is locked with magic and not even Fred is allowed in. He wants to help with the shop but how is he supposed to joke around right now? He doesn't even feel like breathing.
    Fred Weasley tries to go on. He opens the shop back up and Lee comes to help him. Alicia broke up with him after her brother was killed. She was moving away. She couldn't be here. He's torn up but he tries to live for Bells, who can't.
    He smiles and jokes like before but without Bells sitting on the counter it's never the same. His brother won't leave his room or let him in. He won't eat the food Fred leaves by the door. He knows George comes out at night because he hears the door open.
    Night is when Fred Weasley sobs into his pillow. He's lost everything. He blames himself for Bella's death. It really is his fault. He would rather die any day then deal with this. He doesn't think George can hear him sobbing but he does.
    On a summer night Fred is sobbing again and George opens his door. He crawls in bed with his brother and they cry together. When they can cry no longer, they pretend that this is a normal night and Annabella is asleep between them like she used to do sometimes. When it was winter and they were cold they would all sleep in the same bed, laughing until they fell asleep. All that changed later though, when it was George and Bella sharing a bed.
    Annabella Black is lost. She had some money saved up at home that nobody knew about. She was glad for the apparation lessons the order thought she might need as she collected the money from where it was hidden. Now she just had to make a new beginning.
    She started with her looks. She made herself about ten pounds thinner. She gave herself waist long, blond curly hair. She changed her eyes to a bright green color and shortened her nose. She no longer recognized herself. Before she left home, she grabbed the photo album Fred has made her a few years earlier. She was keeping her necklace from Remus. She'd just tuck it under her clothes. This was the beginning.