January 6th.
After they're back to school, Annalee goes to Dumbledore.
"Ms. Annalee, how can I help you?" Dumbledore asks warmly.
She smiles kindly, "I'm going to give you a problem, and you're not going to ask any questions. I've been berated and questioned and all and I won't do it again. Anyways, I need to know about my brother. Jeremy."
Dumbledore blinks a couple of times until he says, "Do sit down. Do you not remember Jeremy?"
"I do not," she agrees. "And I want to know where he is. I need to find him and I need to get my memories back."
"I do not know where he is and I hope you're not going to try and get your memories back in the way I think you're suggesting," Dumbledore says evenly.
"Of course not!" Annalee lies in a happy tone. "But I do need to find my brother. I just wanted to notify you of the present situation. Fleamont Potter has given me a minor potion, and if that works out then hopefully I'll find him. That will be all."
"It was good to see you, Annalee. I'm glad you were safe after your run-in with Tom," Dumbledore says, a faint smile quirking on his old, storied features.
Annalee grins, "Good to see you as well, Professor. I've been looking forward to this semester. Also, I appreciate your giving me a room away from Bellatrix."
She walks coolly out of the office and into an empty classroom where Remus Lupin is waiting.
"You ready?" she asks chipperly.
"I am," he nods. "We won't be able to do the potion, but there are only two people ahead of me in class. Lily and Snape."
"We're not asking Lily," Anna says immediately. "She won't help us. She'll probably report us instead. Not to mention, Snape is better. Plus, I have blackmail on him."
"We'll get him tomorrow. We have to be inconspicuous about our meetings, though," Remus comments.
"I agree. If Sirius figures out we're meeting in secret, I doubt his mind will go to the fact that I have a secret brother who's been erased from my memory," Annalee says so casually, Remus laughs.
"It's always a whirl with you, isn't it, Annie?" he jokes.
She takes a mock curtsy. "Do we have all of the ingredients?"
"Yes. Well they're all in the potions storeroom," Remus says. Adding a grin, he says, "It's under lock and key. In other words, James has the key to it. He won't even know it's missing."
"But we have to be careful. These are rare ingredients. Thankfully, the portions are small enough Slughorn won't know they're missing. Meet here tomorrow, same time, to steal it. I'll bring Severus the day after," Annalee announces. "But... what if we don't get it?"
"We'll deal with it, Annie. We'll figure it all out," Remus reassures her, giving her a close hug.
She hugs him back. Then, before it gets weird, they pull apart.
They leave the classroom and part ways.
Minutes later, an exhausted-looking Annalee walks into the Marauder's.
"Any of you seen Lily?" she asks, rubbing her eyes.
Sirius and James exchange glances.
"You alright, Anna?" James asks.
She waves the question away, "I'm fine. But have you seen Lily?"
"In her dorm," Sirius responds.
"Okay. I'll be back," Anna says, then walks back out.
When she comes back, she walks straight to Sirius' bed and curls up in the fetal position.
"You sure you're okay, Fawley?" Sirius asks, walking over and crouching so she's at eye-level.
She shakes her head. "Tired," is all she mumbles.
Sirius and James go over and sit on his bed. They plan their next prank. Until they hear a faint mantra being repeated on the other side of the room:
"Jeremy?" Annalee whispers. "Where are you? Where'd you go?"
Then, her eyes shoot open.
"Hey, Anna," James says.
She groans. "Sleep is not working for me."
Sirius walks over to his bed, pulling her into a tight hug.
"It's all going to be fine," he reassures her.
Annalee only pulls him closer to her in response.
James looks away.
"Tired," Anna mumbles. She drifts off again in Sirius' arms.
Five minutes later, Remus walks in and Annalee wakes up again.
"Oh hey, Annie," he says as casually as he can. But he looks at her a second too long.
Sirius and James notice.
Anna, ever the good liar, responds nonchalantly, "Hey, Reemes. Thanks for waking me up."
"Sorry," Remus cringes, sitting on his own bed.
Anna yawns, "I'd better get back to my dorm. Dumbles gave me a new room."
"Bye, Anna," James calls as she leaves.
"See ya, Princess," Sirius adds.
"Bye, Annie," Remus finishes.
January 7th.
Remus and Annalee steal the ingredients from the storeroom. They leave them in the empty classroom.
January 8th.
"Hey, Sev," Annalee says casually as she sits down next to him during breakfast.
He looks up at her, surprised. "Hello, Annalee. Can I help you?"
With a charming smile, she says, "Why, yes. Yes, you can. Unless, of course, you want me to tell the precious Lily-flower how you've been dabbling in dark magic."
Severus' mouth compresses into a straight line. "What do you want?"
"You're going to help me and Remus make a potion and you're going to do it with a smile," Annalee says with a sickening smile.
"Looking forward to it. Tonight at 6," Snape says dryly.
"Thank you for your cooperation," Annalee beams. "And I'd thank you to keep your mouth shut about it to everyone but Remus. You won't get in trouble, though. Dumbledore already knows. Kind of. See you later."
Annalee gets up and stalks away, flashing a wink back to Severus who rolls his eyes. She sits down promptly next to Sirius.
"What was that about?" he asks, trying to remain casual.
"It'd been a while, felt like saying hey," Annalee smiles, shooting a pointed look in Remus' direction.
"Oh," Sirius says. "Do I get a hey?"
Annalee rolls her eyes, but presses a quick kiss to his cheek.
"Morning, everyone," she says chipperly to everybody else.
In a grumpy tone, James, Remus, Peter, Lily, and Marlene respond, "Morning."
Annalee and Sirius snicker, then get up and run off.
At 5 p.m. that night, Sirius and Annalee are in the Astronomy tower.
"You're the best, you know that?" she whispers as she looks out onto the Black Lake.
"It certainly helps when you say it," he half-agrees. "And I certainly like hearing you say it."
"Good. There's this poem that I very much love. Want me to recite it?" Annalee offers.
"Sure," Sirius agrees.
"It matters not how strait the gate,
"It does. You now, I really hate life sometimes," Annalee sighs, Jeremy's face in her mind. "But the Dueling Alliance is soon, so that's good. Tomorrow. I've got to go now, though."
"Oh. Alright. I'll see you tomorrow morning, yeah?" Sirius offers.
Annalee shakes her head, "I'm meeting with Dumbledore tomorrow, but I'll definitely see you for our normal meeting tomorrow night."
Sirius nods. "I'll see you then, then."
Annalee sprints off to the empty classroom, trying not to get too excited.
"You ready?" she asks Remus and Severus chipperly upon her appearance in the room.
Severus grumbles, but Remus smiles.
Snape throws a couple of ingredients into a cauldron. It boils, then oozes a light purple smoke.
"Is that... normal?" Severus asks nervously.
Remus checks Fleamont's recipe. "Yeah. Next it'll have fire. Someone has to cast auguamenti."
Right on cue, fire explodes from the cauldron. Annalee murmurs the water spell, and it calms down.
Remus adds a pinch of eye of newt, along with a drop of Standard Potioning Water. The potion flares black.
Just then, they hear steps outside.
"Prefects," Remus mutters. "We have to distract them."
"Sev and I will go. You watch the potion," Anna volunteers, grabbing Severus' arm and hurtling the two of them outside.
They hide behind a wall, waiting for the right time.
"Remind me why I let you drag me into this again? Oh, yes! Blackmail. And before you say it, I most certainly do not love it, or you. In fact, aren't you supposed to be the responsible one?" Severus rambles.
"Whatever. We both know you do love it," Annalee mumbles. As the two prefects come into view, she pastes on a charismatic smile and says, "Hi, I had a quick question for you two. Severus and I are doing a survey on the students of Hogwarts."
The two prefects, boy and girl Gryffindors (who gladly had not cursed nor been cursed by Anna or Severus), exchange looks.
"What can we help you with?" the girl asks after a minute.
"How many quidditch games are you going to a year?" Annalee asks, opening her hands so an already-inked quill and a piece of paper appear in each.
Severus gapes at her magic.
"I go to all of them," the girl says. "That's some impressive conjuring, by the way."
"Thanks," Anna says charmingly. "What about you?"
The boy shrugs, "Normally just the Gryffindor games. I don't really care about the others."
Annalee jots that down, then says, "Thanks again. That's it. Sev? Let's go back to the common room, yeah?"
The prefects nod and walk back the other way, continuing their patrols.
Anna and Severus let out deep breaths, before going back inside the classroom.
"They're gone?" Remus asks.
"They're gone," Annalee confirms. "How's the potion? What do we do next?"
"It has to stay for three weeks. To sit. Then, you can drink it," Severus supplies. "Now I'm leaving. I won't tell anyone, don't worry."
The black-haired boy stalks away, swishing his robes and making Remus snicker.
"Thank you again, Reemes," Anna tells the lycanthrope. "We really needed to do this, and I'm so glad I could do it with you."
Remus smiles back, "Will you tell Sirius now?"
Anna shakes her head back and forth. Reluctantly, she adds, "I just want to make sure it's all set and done before we tell him. If he can't see that the trip to the Manor was worth it, then he'll be mad."
"More mad than you keeping something from him?" Remus challenges exasperatedly.
"Look, I just don't want to tell him, okay? Just leave it be," Anna insists. "Now I've got to go meet with Dumbledore."
Annalee walks away and out of the room.
"You're digging your own grave, Annie!" Remus calls after her.
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