Shadow of the Hero
The most powerful stories are told not by the hero, but by those innumerable many smaller people who fit together just so to make the hero's part possible...

The students had all been looking forward to when their foreign guests would be arriving. Finally, that evening had come. Dumbledore stood at the front of the hall, introducing them before they'd even arrived. Then the doors swung open and the Beauxbatons girls marched in with their carefully choreographed dance of stylized sighing and magical butterflies released into the air.

Most of them were the height of French beauty, delicate and many of them blonde. So one of them at the back stuck out just a little bit. She certainly wasn't ugly by any means, but she was distinctly...not French. If anything, she looked like she had English heritage.

But she kept up with the group--they were her classmates, after all. They'd been practising this routine since the school had received their invitation. It was the older girls that took the 'important' positions of course, but she was one of the rank and file, and that was good enough for her.

That was the first time anyone at Hogwarts got a chance to see Erin. Of course, there would be many more opportunities after the feast was over and the students were released to do as they pleased.

The next day found her, after classes, sitting beneath a tree in the courtyard with a book written in French. She didn't seem to be good at making friends with people like the rest of her classmates were--they had all integrated themselves easily with the Hogwarts students and wandered off, leaving her by herself. Then again, it didn't look like any of her classmates were her -friends-, either.

She seemed used to it, and tried to lose herself in the book and ignore everything else.

At the covered stone walkway that led into the Hogwarts Central Courtyard were gathered three Hogwarts students; two Gryffindors and a Ravenclaw.

"...Oh my gosh." The Ravenclaw girl was laughing, obviously at the tall Gryffindor boy with flaming red hair. "No way. Fred, that was YOU?!"

"Of course it was. You know he doesn't have any restraint and never follows the rules if he can help it." This came from the Gryffindor girl, who looked to be around the same age as the Ravenclaw. A disapproving frown was on her face that was framed by bushy brown hair. "Who else would it have been?"

"Could've been George," the Ravenclaw pointed out flippantly, pushing a strand of her black\aqua\magenta\orange streaked hair behind her ear. Leaning back on the sill of a window of the walkway, upon which she was perched, she scrutinized the Gryffindor boy mock-accusingly. "Unless, of course, you ARE George here to pin blame on Fred for something that you did."

"ME?" Fred returned her mocking expression, feigning hurt. "Even if I WAS George-disguised-as-Fred, Anemone, how would you be able to tell if you were being deceived?"

Anemone shrugged, unabashed. "I wouldn't," she replied with a grin. "I can never tell you two boys apart until you give something away; and you both know each other too well to do that if you WERE trying to impersonate the other."

"They never operate on their own, besides," the bushy-haired Gryffindor girl added. "Always plunging into trouble together without thinking." She shook her head, but it was in a resigned way, as if she had grown used to this fact long ago and realized there was no moving a mountain in this case.

Fred also shook his head, the flashing Weasley-Twin-Grin never leaving his face. "Now, now, Hermione," he chided the Gryffindor girl. "We both love mischief, it is true, but never say that we don't think things through before we do them."

"Yeah!" Piped up another voice that was eerily similar to Fred's. "We may be trouble, but we're not stupid."

"Hi, George, you're finally here," Fred greeted his twin as he approached the group.

"It took you long enough," Hermione added. "Where have you been, we've been waiting!"

"They would have long since been deceased from boredom if I, with my philanthropic nature, had not chanced by and stopped to talk with them." Anemone of the colorfully-streaked hair placed a hand to her collarbone and nodded, a virtuous expression on her face... Then completely ruined the effect by grinning at Hermione.

"Hey, what's your hurry, anyway?" George asked the Gryffindor girl. "I'm here now, so let's go."

"Honestly, Hermione, your questions are delaying us from our mission," Fred added as he and his twin turned and began to walk away.

Hermione frowned before hurrying after them. "See you later, Anemone," she called back over her shoulder to the Ravenclaw girl still sitting on the sill of a walkway window.

"See you!" Called the two twins.

"You have fun with Ron and Harry!" Anemone called back cheerily before standing and straightening her navy skirt. "Now... Oh, right, I was headed to the library," she murmured to herself as she began to walk down the walkway in the opposite direction of her friends. "Paper on the known history of merpeople dating from the first sighting in--"

She slowed down as she glanced out the window and noticed, amongst the various groups of Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang students gathered about, a single girl all by her lonesome, reading under a tree. By her uniform, Anemone instantly knew her to be from Beauxbatons.

"Poor thing must be shy," the Ravenclaw girl muttered to herself. "Well, we'll just have to remedy that."

And so Anemone Wakanda strolled across the courtyard to plop herself down to sit next to the reading Beauxbatons girl.

"Wotcher!" She greeted the foreign--she had to be, though she didn't really look it--student brightly. "The name's Anemone, I'm a fourth year here. Ravenclaw, though I guess you'd already gotten that part." With a wry grin, she fingered her navy-and-bronze tie, which she was quite fond of.

"What's your name? Oh, are you studying?" Anemone tried to read the book's title, but could not understand a word of it, as it was, predictably, in French. "I was on my way to the library to do some studying myself, but I figured I ought to get to know more of the visiting students, first."

Erin shut her book immediately, not doing much for her carefully crafted image of 'I barely want to be here'. She was just a little bit too eager to talk to someone that had approached her, and it showed in the expression on her face. She smiled for the other girl, sweeping her hazel eyes over the Ravenclaw.

She extended her hand to the other girl politely. "My name is Erin, and no, I'm reading for fun. I haven't managed to get to the library yet...navigating the stairs here is proving a bit tricky for me..."

It was a lie of course, but one of the innocent social lies that one tells to make social interactions a little bit easier. She hadn't gotten to the library yet because she hadn't felt like going yet, but she could let the other girl feel helpful and useful in showing her around a little bit. It was a chance to make friends.

More unusual than what she said, however, was actually how she said it. Her English was surprisingly flawless, and there was no trace of an accent in her voice. Rather, she sounded like she was indeed as English as she looked, not a trace of French heritage or upbringing within her.

She had to speak the language, of course, but there was no doubt, from her accent, that French was her -second- language rather than her native tongue. But with her so distinctly English...why was she attending Beauxbatons?

It was a question she wasn't ready to answer in the slightest. She even avoided giving her last name, and would dodge the question if it was pushed. "You have a very pretty name, Anemone. Very unusual." She wasn't even going to touch on her own name and its distinctly Irish sound to it. So the story went, her mother had been the one to name her.

The one thing her mother had done for her before leaving. Though given her history...she couldn't be sure if her mother had indeed left or had instead 'left', in very heavy quotation marks in her mind. But she pressed her eyes shut and shook her head briefly, clearing out the thought before it tainted the present.

This was her chance to have a much happier present, a chance even to make a friend. She still hadn't quite managed that, even as far away from her past as Beauxbatons Academy. "Will you help me get to the library some time? If you're headed there shortly anyway...?"

Anemone shook the girl's proffered hand, smiling back, although a bit puzzled. The girl not only did not look French, she didn't even sound it. Anemone was a tad disappointed--she had always loved foreign accents. Her name wasn't French either... Irish? Whatever, maybe her family had moved to France or something. Or she was a foreign exchange student. But anyway, it was none of her business...

Yet.

Anemone carefully filed this unusual information away for future persual.

One of the Ravenclaw's hobbies happened to be 'investigating'... some would call it 'gossiping,' but that was hardly the right term for what she did, she felt. If she came up against anything she could not immediately find an explanation for, well... she went and found one.

In a manner that usually involved talking to people.

About recent events.

Going on in other people's lives.

But GOSSIP? That nasty talk that the more popular girls (especially in Slytherin) engaged in and enjoyed spreading around the entire school? Perish the thought of Anemone, Anemone Wakanda! ever doing something like that purely to be mean. She preferred to refer to what she did as "conveying news" or, as said before, "personal investigation" to satisfy her own curiosity.

At the mention of stairs, Anemone laughed and rolled her eyes. "Oh, the STAIRS. I hated having to go up and down those things, and when they MOVE, and you have to find them again, or another way to class or whatever? I'm more used to it now that I've been here a good few years (plus I've got intel on secret passageways from certain somebodies), but I completely understand how you wouldn't want to deal with them.

"Oh, yes, of course I could help you get to the library. What's the library at Beauxbatons like, anyway? Hogwarts' library is great, you can find a book on anything you could possibly imagine. Do you know, I once found a book totally dedicated to dissecting the Muggle mindset on reliance on electronic toasters?" She chuckled.

"Sorry," she added once she had stopped laughing. "I just find that funny because I come from a Muggle family myself--well, I thought it was purely Muggle, but then when I got here I started getting information on my family and compiling an ancestral tree. I'm still working on it," she added proudly. "I never knew my family went back so far... And it turns out that WAY back, my family was comprised almost entirely of witches and wizards! Then they started intermarrying with Muggles, and the wizarding blood kind of... diluted, I suppose you could say. I'm the first with magical blood for five centuries.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" She said yet again, her eyes widening. "When I get to talking on a subject that I'm interested in, I tend to just keep on going until I realize what I'm doing... Or until someone tells me to shut up."

Laughing at herself, she stood and brushed off her skirt. "Want to head to the library right now? I'm working on a paper, researching the known history of merfolk colonies around the world, dating from the first recorded sighting. I'll be focusing on merfolk colonies around the coast of Britain, you know, since it's close to home and all." She grinned at Erin. "It's actually more of an extra-credit assignment--the topic of merfolk just sort of came up in class one day, and I asked the professor after class if I could do a research project, and he said yes. So now I get to satisfy my curiosity for a grade!

"Did you know that--Oh, crumb. There I go babbling again." She shook her head ruefully. "You're probably not too interested in that, anyway. We were going to the library?"

Anemone looked at Erin questioningly before turning and beginning to walk away, obviously expecting the Beaxbatons student to follow.

Erin's eyes widened a little bit at the other girl's deluge of information and randomness. She was a very taciturn person by nature, and it was just a little bit off-putting to listen to someone simply dump everything on her with no regard for...anything really.

She wrinkled her nose as the girl divulged her blood history, not because she held any opinions on it, but because she was simply shocked that it was a conversational topic. With times being such as they were...with even reports of there having been Death Eater activity at an international Quiddich match...

Did this girl really think it was appropriate or -safe- to simply spout off her blood history to just anyone? Especially when her blood was not -only- impure but perhaps of the worst kind--traitorous wizards who had intermarried with Muggles and tarnished their blood... She didn't think it actually mattered, but she knew that there -were- people who thought it did.

God did she know that there were people who thought it did.

She spent most of her life in a constant battle to -prove- that she wasn't one of them.

Then again, that wasn't entirely fair. Not everyone knew who she was--not everyone knew why she was so up tight and bordering on neurotic about some things. Nobody here knew who she was. And not many people even -knew- what the Riddle name meant.

Perhaps that was one of the better parts of her father's delusions of grandeur--he had given himself a 'regal' name, and proceeded to make a very -nasty- name out of it. Nobody remembered that the Dark Lord had once been named Tom Riddle.

Then again...she wasn't keen on giving away her last name -anyway-.

Though this girl seemed quite happy to do talking enough for the both of them, so she just nodded along with the entire tale, interjecting a curious 'oh' or an understanding 'mm' as it flowed to encourage her along. Yes, she could be a simple idle passenger in this conversation, and perhaps manage to eke out a 'friend' without giving away very much about herself at all.

"We can go to the library whenever you're ready, Anemone. There's no rush...unless your studies are pressing?" She acted older than she was--it was another way to keep people distant from herself, and although it was a lonely existence, it was all she really dared do. She was too scared to keep people close to herself.

She was only trying to make friends this year, she sternly told herself, because it would reflect badly on the Academy if she were too standoffish. These wouldn't be permanent friends, these would be temporary friendships forged for the sole purpose of appearing 'normal' while she was at Hogwarts. She wouldn't keep in touch by owl once she returned to France.

Besides...if anything happened, though she shuddered at the thought, if anything happened, they wouldn't be her friends for long -anyway-.

She stood and offered her hand to the other girl, smiling gently. "Let me help you up at least, since you sat down for my sake..."

"All right, let's head off, then," Anemone replied cheerfully. Making her way through the occasional throngs of students, she walked across the courtyard, through the walkway, and into the school proper.

"It's off this way," she told Erin over her shoulder. "It's on the fourth floor, so we'll have to use the stairs, but I'm pretty sure the stairs over here are stationary all around noontime... A-hah!" She cried triumphantly as she rounded a corner and came upon a flight of stone steps with ornately carved stone railings. "I was right!"

In no time, Anemone was up the stairs, down three corridors, and entering a large wooden door clearly labeled:


LIBRARY

NO FOOD, DRINK, ANIMALS, OR OTHER POTENTIAL DANGERS TO BOOKS.
KEEP QUIET OR ELSE.
~MADAME PINCE, LIBRARIAN

"All right, now is when you'll have to keep quiet, like it says on the door," Anemone instructed Erin, stepping across the threshold. "Madam Pince is a batty old woman who HATES--"

And then there was an elderly lady with a shriveled face and suspicious eyes, holding several large tomes in her arms and glaring at Anemone in a manner most foul.

"Are you TALKING above a WHISPER in MY library, young lady?" She hissed venomously.

"Oh, Madam Pince!" Anemone jumped, hastily rearranging her startled features into an expression of innocence. "Of course not... I was just telling Erin here--she's from Beauxbatons, that's in France--how this is most definitely the cleanest, quietest, most well organized library I have ever had the fortune to set foot in, and bookworm that I am, I've set foot in quite a good many of them!"

She smiled winningly at the librarian, who in her turn looked mollified.

"Well, then... Run along now, but make sure you keep all conversing at a whisper, you hear?"

"Oh, yes, Madam Pince, absolutely." Anemone widened her eyes at Erin, obviously conveying 'let's get a move on', before heading further into the library (and thus further away from the strict librarian).

Erin was distinctly unimpressed with the Hogwarts library. Or more specifically, its librarian. She nodded dumbly and followed along behind Anemone, barely managing to hold back a snarky look at the teacher. But she didn't particularly want to get into trouble. She managed that well enough just by -existing-.

She followed along easily, sweeping her eyes over the books and their assorted titles and only really half-listening to what the other girl was saying as they walked through the shelves upon shelves of books. Until they got to a certain section...

Erin froze in place, staring up at the bookshelf in awe for a moment, reading each of the titles reverently. Finally, she reached out and helped herself to one of the books and turned to follow after her guide once again. Though she held the thick tome quite protectively--definitely something that she would be checking out on her own.

She didn't explain her actions, either. Anemone was the talkative one out of the two of them, she'd already decided in her mind. If the chattery girl wanted to know why she'd grabbed that book, or even which book it was that had gotten the girl's attention, she'd have to ask.

"So are you really a bookworm?" she whispered quietly, encouraging Anemone to talk about herself rather than letting the conversation drift to anything about Erin herself.

Anemone turned from walking down the aisle of bookcases to grin at the Beauxbatons student. "Oh, yes, I really am," she laughed (quietly). "I hang out in the library a lot. It's why I know which staircases lead to it when, no matter what the time of day. Pretty useful to know when you're always checking out books or having them on hold.

"Oh, what's that you've got there?" She asked suddenly, noticing the book Erin clutched in her arms. The girl was holding it in such a way that Anemone could not see the title. "It's pretty good that you've found something you're interested in already. What's it about?

"You know," she continued on happily, "if you ever need help getting a book or figuring out where to find a certain topic, you can always feel free to ask me. Or Hermione Granger; she's a Gryffindor, she's hard to miss, with her hair all..."

Anemone pantomimed her hair poofing out.

"I'm not being mean, though!" She hastily added. "We're friends, really we are. You can just ask her. Oh, we'll be having dinner in a few hours in the Great Hall; if you'd like, I can introduce you to her then. She can be a bit... of a stickler for the rules," she said with a shrug, "but she's a good person. I like her," she declared cheerfully. "Even though I didn't exactly start off on her good side," she laughed, "I won her over in the end."

She nodded quietly, listening to the girl and wondering what sort of nickname she would one day earn. Probably 'the quiet one'. But she didn't care what other people thought of her, it was only idle curiosity, she resolutely admonished herself. She couldn't let herself get wrapped up in the whats and wherefores of thinking she might have any chance at being -normal-. She had something to hide, and she needed to -focus- on hiding it.

She let her see the title of the book she'd picked out, though. The Compendium Magicanum Florae, a book usually only checked out by the seventh years as they studied for their midterms for Professor Snape. Certainly not 'light reading', it was one of the more difficult Potions books going.

"I'm...really into potions. It's my best subject." She sughed a little bit as she listened to herself, realizing that she was simply volunteering information. She needed to play her cards a bit closer to her chest if she didn't want to start trouble, and she knew it.

"I don't know that I'd do well in a large group...I start to stammer when I get overwhelmed. Maybe I'll just eat with the rest of my classmates, and you introduce me to her some other time?" And she'd done it again, as well. She could have smacked her forehead into the heavy book she was carrying.

Anemone's eyes widened as she read the title of the book. "Wow. I think you and Hermione would REALLY get along well. Even I haven't tried to read THAT one, and that, I can assure you, is saying something. You know, when we first got here, Hermione and I were kind of rivals for library books? We would always be racing to get a copy of this or that before the other could check it out."

A grin spread over her face as she listened to Erin talk about her favorite subject. "Really? That's awesome. Maybe you can help me butter up Snape into giving me a better grade... No, I'm kidding, really I am." She made a face. "I swear I should be getting higher marks in that class... I think it's my hair. You'd think he would learn to loosen up a little... Maybe he had strict parents or something and he got it from them."

Shrugging, Anemone changed the subject, smiling encouragingly at the Beauxbatons girl. "Oh, don't worry, I'm sure you'll get along. They're all really very nice. I started hanging around them... Oh, oops. That's kind of a long story, and I've already done my fair share of rambling for the day, I'm sure." She laughed. "Anyway, long story short, they're good people, and you seem like a good person to me, and I'm sure you'll all get along."

Anemone mentally willed Erin to agree--it would be so much fun getting to know her more, the brilliantly-color-haired girl was sure. "Come on, say you'll eat with us tonight. Please?"

Her eyes went wide from the moment Professor Snape was mentioned. Now there was a name she recognised, and not in the good way. Hidden in with her belongings, disguised as a potions textbook, she had one gift from her father that she dared keep--a simple photo album with photographs of her family. Sprinkled in with it were photographs of her father's friends as well, and one Severus Snape was one name in particular that she recalled.

She shivered a little bit, but continued on resolutely. "I d-doubt he is giving you bad marks over s-something as s-simple as your h-hair. And I r-really don't th-think that 'buttering him up' will ch-change his m-mind on anything..." Was the girl really so shallow that she thought everyone thought only in terms of fashion and hairstyles?

Then again...maybe it was all a ruse. The fastest way to beat someone is to make them underestimate you, after all. She knew all of those little tricks, had learned them all halfway by instinct and halfway the hard way by how her classmates had treated her. The French girls all knew who she was (though thankfully they were staying silent), and had decided the best defence against Voldemort's daughter was a strong, strong offence.

Yes, Erin decided, this girl needed to become one of her -dear- friends, if only to keep an eye on her. When Anemone had come to trust her enough to let her in on the ruse and what she was hiding...maybe they'd work together, Erin thought. It didn't occur to her that maybe she was the one overthinking things.

"I d-don't...w-want to get p-pulled into a big group, Anemone..." She sighed softly, wishing that mentioning Snape hadn't triggered her stammer. He was the potions teacher? Of all of the nasty, miserable, dirty luck in the world...she was taking advanced classes, separated from her classmates and tossed in with a group of sixth years for Potions. Slytherins as well, she thought. Into the lion's den...

"H-how many people are you t-talking about?"

Anemone kept her expression open, but she had by no means neglected to notice the way Erin started stuttering the minute she had mentioned Snape's name. Hmmm... THAT was interesting. Maybe the girl had a crush? Although, with Snape...? Anemone had to fight back a shudder of disgust.

...No, wait. Snape scared half of the students in the school, if he didn't just make them plain hate his guts. It was probably just that, was all. Snape's reputation as one of the meanest, hardest teachers (if you weren't a Slytherin, that is) had preceded him even to France.

Shrugging such thoughts out of her mind, but as always putting a tab on them to be recalled later, Anemone returned to the conversation at hand.

"How many? Oh, not many at all, don't worry. Let's see--" The bright-haired girl began ticking off on her fingers. "There's Hermione, and then Ron, and Harry, too. They've got their own friends, of course, that they hang around with as well. Oh, and Ron's older brothers, Fred and George. They're twins, and for the life of me I can't tell them apart despite knowing them for this long." She laughed. "They are simply hilarious, the best pranksters I've ever met. They're pretty friendly, you'll probably like them."

"But anyway," Anemone continued on breezily, tucking a stray lock of blue hair behind her ear, "Like I said, not really a big group at all. They're very nice, and like I said also, you're liable to hit it off with Hermione if you're as big a bookworm as she is. She's extremely bright, it's a wonder she didn't make it into Ravenclaw--but you know, the Sorting Hat has its reasons."

Shrugging, she began to peruse the books, finally pulling one off the shelf with a cry of delight. "'Lyttle Knowne Submersyves: Dyssectyng Mermysh Legends'? Oh my gosh, this sounds like it would be SO helpful to my research! Not to mention really interesting." Anemone gleefully hugged the book to her chest.

"Anyway, you'll probably want to be reading your book, won't you? I've got to take notes from this, too. We can stay in here until dinnertime; it's always quiet, so we'll be able to get lots of work done."

She sat down at a nearby study table, set the book down, pulled a sheet of parchment, quill, and ink bottle from the bag that had all the while been slung over her shoulder, and then looked up at Erin expectantly.

Erin watched her carefully as Anemone began to list off the people in the group she was being somehow dragged into. Not only was it starting to sound like a very large list, her eyes widened and her whole body froze for a moment when she heard one name in particular. It took her a moment to force herself to breathe again, force her muscles to release her from their lock-up enough that she could talk.

"H-h-harry.....as in P-p-potter?" Her stammer was in fine form now, thoroughly encompassing and choking through just about everything she tried to say. She couldn't be seen near Harry Potter. Couldn't make friends with his friends. She needed to get away, needed to run and hide. This girl wasn't a Gryffindor, why wasn't she friends with people in her -own- house? Why was she friends with =him=?

She forced herself to breathe, pressing her eyes shut for a moment as she steadied herself. "...I....mean....it's.....n-nothing....." She shuddered, knowing she was making a godawful display of herself. Right when she -needed- to be low key.

Anemone nodded. "Yes, that's him. For a famous person, he's really nice, and..."

She broke off, her brow furrowing worriedly as she noticed Erin's stammer. "Hey, are you all right? You look really pale... Oh my gosh, can you breathe?!"

Anemone moved to steady the Beauxbatons girl. "Erin, you look horrible! What's the matter? We should get you to Madam Pomfrey, she's the school nurse!"

Looking around wildly, she spotted another student that she recognized, a tall Hufflepuff boy with curly brown hair. Relief showing vividly on her face, she called him over. "Drystan! Drystan, come over here, please, it's Erin, I think she's having a panic attack or something! Can you stay with her while I go get Madam Pomfrey?"

The Hufflepuff immediately hurried over, a book clutched in his hand and concern etched on his soft features. "Erin, is it?" He asked the Beauxbatons girl. "Yes, I'll stay with her. But hurry up, Anemone, she really doesn't look well at all."

The brilliantly-tressed girl nodded frantically before rushing off.

Erin only shuddered again when Anemone launched into what sounded like it would begin a long list of positive points to Harry's character. She didn't care, didn't want to know, and wanted to stay away. That summed it all up, really--she wanted to stay away. She had nothing against the boy, and that was....perhaps part of the problem. People expected her to hate him, to want him to die the same as her father, but....

People didn't know who she was here. Her classmates weren't teasing her openly about it, had probably been warned off of saying anything for fear of starting an incident. For fear of causing a panic if Harry Potter ever found out just who was here. As long as she stayed away from him, she could prove she meant him no harm. As long as she stayed away from him, she wouldn't have to worry about him doing something truly nasty to her when he found out who she was.

She took a deep breath when Anemone asked about her breathing, answering her far better that way than she would be able to force out around her stammer. Mentioning that boy was one of the fastest ways to draw it out, as loudly and markedly as possible. Then again, mentioning anyone that was known for association to her father did the same--Snape, the Malfoys, and really most of the Slytherin students would be a quick ticket to her stammer.

It was only a matter of time before people started putting two and two together and noticing which topics set her off. From there it was only a simple logical conclusion. "I'm-m f-fine....." She tried to stop Anemone, but the girl was already off and away, off on some quest to get the nurse who would eventually pronounce her to be perfectly fine aside from having a pronounced stammer.

She looked over at the boy that had come to keep an eye on her and smiled sheepishly, reaching into her bag and pulling out a small bit of charcoal (easier to get out quickly than a quill) and a bit of paper, writing down I'm fine, really. I just stammer. She hoped it would be enough to convince everyone to let her alone.

Drystan only looked at her oddly and shook his head. "Excuse me for saying, but you don't look fine," he told her, his blunt way of speaking contradicting his soft facial features. "You're all pale and shaking, and see, you can't even speak straight, so you have to write it out?"

He glanced at the wobbly scrawl that Erin had produced and shook his head once more. "Besides, even if you were fine, Anemone would give me an ear full if I let you alone while she went off. I'm staying here with you."

The Hufflepuff boy pulled out a chair at the nearby table. "Here, sit down before you collapse or something. Your legs are really shaking, you know. Might do you some good to try to relax a little."

Meanwhile, Anemone was pelting high-speed down the stairs and through the hallways, not caring about all of the stares that she was receiving. She was already used to being the weird one, and besides, stares meant nothing when a potential new friend was in danger!

"Madam Pomfrey!" The Ravenclaw girl yelled as she burst into the hospital wing. The nurse promptly whirled around from stripping a bed of its sheets, her brows snapped together in a disapproving scowl.

"No shouting in the hospital wing!" Madam Pomfrey cried; the one Gryffindor student who was there looked rather alarmed at Anemone's dramatic entrance.

"I'm sorry, Madam Pomfrey, but can you come quickly to the library? It's a Beauxbatons student named Erin, I think she's having a panic attack or something! Can you come see her? I left someone with her, but I'm not sure--"

Madam Pomfrey immediately dropped the sheets that she was holding on the floor, grabbed a small purple potion bottle from a nearby shelf, and marched over to where Anemone stood at the door. "Show me the way," the nurse commanded firmly.

Anemone was only too happy to comply. The pair raced back up to the library, attracting even more stares than before at Madam Pomfrey's surprising fleetness of foot.

"Here she is, Madam Pomfrey," Anemone proclaimed, rushing over to Erin and Drystan. "Erin, I brought her! How are you feeling?"

Erin settled in the chair with a sigh, figuring that arguing would only make it worse. She folded her arms and stared sullenly at the floor, waiting for Anemone to return with the school nurse. She didn't know what the woman would be able to do for her, as nothing had ever been able to cure her stammer. It was certainly related to a panic attack, the stammering jumble of her words was brought on by nerves and stress when certain topics were mentioned. Certain topics that brushed on her past that she worked so hard to keep secret.

Not that it was even her own past, really. She was the same age as Harry Potter--she'd been just an infant when her father had been defeated. Killed, she told herself. She only managed her day to day life by reminding herself that he was dead and would never be able to pop up out of nowhere to bother her. Her own father had become the boogie man in her mind, and when she'd first gone to Beauxbatons she'd even had nightmares of him coming to life and coming for her.

She looked up at the boy and managed a very awkward smile for him. She didn't feel like smiling, and it certainly showed on her face. But...she would try. She was trying to calm herself down, but it was exceptionally difficult when she was so wound up with the stress of anticipating what would happen when Madame Pomfrey came to check on her. What if the woman was an old woman who had been with the school a long time...who would recognise her as being related to her father? The thought sent chills down her spine, and she shuddered with the fear of it.

Erin's head snapped around to look at the doors when Anemone burst in with the nurse, and she shuddered again, closing her eyes. "I'm f-f-f-fine....leave me al-l-l-lone. It's j-j-j-j-just a st-t-t-t-t-tamm-m-m-m-mer." She'd spent the whole time waiting for them to arrive just stewing in her fears and her worries, everything tumbling over itself and getting more and more upsetting until their arrival had shaken her out of it.

Madam Pomfrey took one look at the Beauxbatons girl, then unstoppered the cork in the purple potion bottle. "Draught of Peace," she prescribed briskly, whipping out one of the tiniest vials that Anemone had ever seen from a pocket in her robes. She filled it with the potion from the larger bottle, which was emitting a silvery vapor, then handed the vial to Erin.

"Drink it up now, where I can see you," the nurse told her, though not harshly. "And you seem to be resistant to aid, so I have to tell you now, don't try any tricks to get out of drinking that; I've seen them all before. If that doesn't help, then come down to the hospital wing for a Calming Draught every two hours until the symptoms abate."

Meanwhile Anemone started at Erin's brusqueness. "What? But Erin, Madam Pomfrey says you're not well! And she's one of the best nurses I've ever known, wizards and Muggles combined. And... what do you mean, leave you alone?" She demanded, a hand on her hip. "Here I am trying to help you, and you just throw that... that ATTITUDE in my face? That's some thanks for running all over the school getting the nurse and--"

The brightly-tressed girl abruptly stopped, taking several deep breaths. "No, I'm sorry," she went on when she was more calm. "Whatever you're going through must be stressful, and I have no right to lash out at you like that. Say you'll forgive me, please? You will have dinner with us tonight in the Great Hall, won't you? Say you will!"

Drystan could not hide a mirthful smile at Anemone's eagerness; she looked extremely similar to a begging dog.

Erin took the vial and looked at it quizzically, studying it carefully though she didn't seem to be protesting. Rather...she was judging. Only when she decided the potion was acceptable did she knock it back, and then hand the vial back over. As effective as it was...it also seemed that the mere act of studying the potion before even drinking it had also done a lot to calm the girl. If her choice in reading material was anything to go by, potions was something rather important to her.

"I...s-s-st-t-t-t-till st-t-tammer.... I t-t-tried t-t-to t-t-tell her-r-r-r I a-a-always s-s-st-t-tammer...." The potion had worked marvellously--Erin was calm, and no longer shaking, but that stammer left a very important question unanswered.

She hadn't stammered before. She hadn't until Snape and Harry Potter had been mentioned. There was no hiding the fact that she'd had a -very- bad reaction to those names. The question now was -why-. Especially since she seemed very keen to have the subject left -alone-.

She winced when Anemone took it so personally, though, and she reached out to the girl. Talking was still difficult, would be until her mind decided it was 'safe' to talk again, so she let her hands do the talking by finding one of Anemone's and giving it a gentle squeeze. She nodded when the girl asked for forgiveness, feeling altogether awful about having upset her so.

Anemone clapped her hands in glee when Erin extended a forgiving hand. "Wonderful! So I'll meet you at the doors to the Great Hall tonight, since you're having dinner with us after all. This has made me so happy, thank you, Erin!"

"Yes, yes, this is all very joyous, but there is still the matter of that stammer." Madam Pomfrey scrutinized Erin's face carefully, then shook her head. "Well, your color and posture are much improved now, and the shaking has completely vanished. Perhaps it will just take some time for your stammer to abate, as well... Don't forget, though, if your stammer is not gone in an hour, you are to come to the hospital wing!"

With a fiercely determined look that indicated that the nurse would not hesitate to hunt the Beauxbatons girl down in person if she even so much as heard a whisper of her not being well, Madam Pomfrey turned and left the library.

Drystan cleared his throat. "So... Erin, you're all right, then? Anemone, is it all right if I go? Only I've got three feet of parchment due in Herbology tomorrow, so I really must start on my research for it..."

Anemone waved a hand, shooting him a grateful smile. "Go on then, Drystan, and thanks a lot for watching Erin."

As the Hufflepuff boy walked off, Anemone turned to the Beauxbatons girl. "You probably want to rest, right? That had to have taken something out of you. Where are the Beauxbatons girls staying again?"

Erin smiled weakly, a bit surprised by Anemone's enthusiasm. She wasn't really keen on the thought of going to dinner with the entire group, -especially- not when Harry Potter was going to be among them. She cringed a little bit at the thought, but there wasn't a lot she could do about it -now-. She'd agreed, and...that was that. She'd have to find a way to cope somehow. Maybe she would brew some Calming Draught herself and take a flask of it to dinner with her.

She sighed quietly at Madame Pomferey's insistence, and shook her head insistently. "I've h-h-had a st-t-tammer for y-y-years I d-d-don't th-h-h-hink it'll g-g-go aw-w-way any t-t-time s-soon...." She sighed softly, shaking her head, grateful that she at least was being left alone again.

She smiled for Drystan as he left, nodding awkwardly to him as he walked away before turning her attention back to Anemone directly. "I'm f-f-fine. J-j-just n-no g-good f-f-for c-c-convers-s-sation...." She sighed, taking the book she'd gotten a hold of and holding it to her chest. As long as Anemone didn't bring up Harry Potter again, her stammer should be gone well within her allotted hour. But if it went away and Anemone did it again, she figured the girl was smart enough to start figuring out the connection.

{{OOC - A thousand apologies for the amount of time this has taken! :cry: I've gotten out of backlog though and should be on the ball with speed again now. ^^;;;;;;}}

"Well, if you're certain." Anemone grinned at Erin before taking the girl's arm and swinging her around to face the front of the library. "Let's get out of here; too stuffy in here anyways right now. And I just remembered; you're staying in that horse-drawn coach of yours, aren't you? Do you want to go find it and rest for a while?"

She was stopped abruptly by Madam Pince. "Where are you going with that book, young ladies?"

"We were going to find you to check it out, Madam Pince," Anemone replied meekly; after the librarian had taken the book to check it out, the bright-haired girl rolled her eyes at her Beaxbatons companion.

"Here," Madam Pince muttered at Erin, handing her back the book. "Don't forget to turn it in on time!"

"Oh, yes, Madam Pince, we'll remember," Anemone shot over her shoulder as she ushered Erin and herself out of the library doors. Once they were safely out, she rolled her eyes once more. "Honestly," she sighed gustily. "I've never met a person as batty about books as that woman!"

Anemone then glanced around until she spotted a girl in Beaxbatons uniform. Walking up to her, the Ravenclaw grew aware that the blonde was flirting outrageously with a hulking Durmstrang boy. She hesitated before finally deciding to speak with the girl.

"Excuse me?"

The Beauxbatons girl glanced around at her, obviously irritated to be interrupted in the middle of a witty phrase. "What eez eet?" She asked, her perfectly plucked eyebrows furrowed.

"I was just wondering where your coach is," Anemone replied, barely restraining herself from snapping back.

"And why do you want to know?"

"Because my friend here isn't feeling good and she needs to rest."

The Beauxbatons girl looked over at Erin, her face registering recognition. "Oh, eet eez only Ereen," she noted flippantly. "Ze stutters, eez eet not? She gets theez way from time to time. Just let 'er be."

The Durmstrang boy also looked at Erin, his expression less certain. "Are you sure that...?"

"Eet eez fine," the Beauxbatons girl snapped quite definitely. "Come, let us go over 'ere."

And she clasped onto the boy's arm and practically dragged him away.

Erin waited patiently for Anemone to sort out checking out the book for her. With her voice out of commission she felt utterly at a loss, unable to do even basic things without a bit of assistance. At any rate, she supposed she ought to be grateful to Anemone for taking care of her. Though when the other girl approached one of her classmates, Erin visibly cringed and shuddered.

While they had been told not to talk about it to the Hogwarts students, it was common knowledge around Beauxbatons just exactly who Erin was, or more specifically who she was related to. It had been done in the interests of keeping the students informed, but what it had accomplished had been to mark her out as a social pariah. If nothing else, the year spent at Hogwarts would at least give her a welcome vacation from having her classmates shriek 'mangemort' and other obsceneties at her.

She let out a sigh of relief when Jeanette turned down an opportunity to make her life that much worse. She was too engaged with flirting with the boy, and who could blame her really, with how out of the way and isolated Beauxbatons academy was? It was nice to be meeting people that weren't the usual classmates she'd been seeing for years now, and she would have been devastated if it was 'accidentally' leaked who she was in relation to Hogwarts' more 'famous' student.

She took Anemone's hand and started to lead her, showing the way silently since talking would be too difficult. She could get there just fine. Really, she didn't need all this fuss at all--everyone at Beauxbatons was used to her stammering, and she wished that the people at Hogwarts would get used to it as well. Either that or not bring up Harry Potter. She was going to do her best to avoid him, avoid thinking about him, avoid everything to do with the Boy Who Lived.

Anemone took note of Erin's sigh and grinned wryly at her. "Not on the top of your 'Favorite People in the World' list, is she?" The bright-haired girl chuckled, trying to relieve the tension in the air left after the Beauxbatons' girl's departure with her target of flirtation. "Can't say I blame you, there."

They had been walking for several minutes when a boy their age fell into step with them. Anemone looked over at him and inwardly groaned; it was Fabian, the Slytherin boy who was always trying to get notes from Potions class off her, or get her to do his homework for him, or a million other school-related things. As he put it, "Why do the work myself when I've got a Ravie for a friend?"

'Even though we are NOT,' she thought to herself before smiling at Fabian; no need to be rude, especially in front of Erin.

"Hello, Fabian," she said, her vocal tone falling just short of polite despite her resolve to put on a brave face.

"Wotcher, 'Nemmy," he grinned at her in a manner that many of the other female students found to be dashing.

Anemone could not bite back a sigh of frustration. "I keep telling you not to call me that," she muttered, her facade of politeness abruptly gone. "What do you want, Fabian?"

He didn't seem to notice her abrupt change of mood--or else, she suspected was more likely, he just didn't care. "What, I can't just talk with a friend?" He winked at her, and she inwardly shuddered; there was something about the black-haired boy that had always seemed off to her, although she could never place what exactly it was. "Oh, but there is something..."

"If you don't mind, Fab, I'm a little busy showing Erin here around Hogwarts," Anemone interrupted him snappishly. "Whatever it is you need help with, you'll have to find someone else. Sorry."

And she took the lead, practically dragging Erin away.

Once they had left Fabian behind, Anemone slowed her pace and gave a sheepish laugh. "Sorry about that, Erin," she apologized. "I just... can't stand that guy. He's always trying to cheat off me or get me to do his homework... That sort of thing. If you're not smart enough to do it yourself, you should at least make the effort yourself, right?" She made this remark carelessly, not seeming to notice how cruel it sounded, especially coming from her. "Slytherins are always like that, you'll find that out soon enough. You'd best stay away from that House, they're nothing but trouble... Oh, what do you know?"

For there a little ways away from them stood the Beauxbatons coach, horseless and surrounded by a smattering of students from each of the schools.

Erin laughed softly when Anemone quickly assessed just what she thought of Jeanette. The feeling was mutual there, so there was nothing wasted at least. She took a deep breath, finally daring to try again. "N-no. I d-don't get al-long with m-my classm-mates." Any of them. And while that might mark her out as odd from the git go, it was also a very fair and accurate statement.

Soon, however, someone had fallen into step with them, and her eyes widened briefly when she saw the colours on his tie. This was worse than falling in with Harry Potter's friends. At least while she was frightened of Harry...as long as she behaved herself, she was behaving herself. But a Slytherin...just being -around- them could start the rumour mill amongst her classmates about just what she was doing with herself here at Hogwarts. She started walking a bit faster, turning her face away from the boy.

She didn't recognise him on sight, couldn't place which family it was he was from. But if he was from a Death Eater family...he would easily be able to place -her-. She resembled her father strongly, or at least she resembled the man he had once been. Anyone whose family was still involved with the Death Eater movement enough to have paraphernalia hidden around the house could see a photograph of the man who would one day be Voldemort, and from there...

It was only a matter of time before the Slytherins started flocking to her, or at least that was what Erin thought. Thought, worried over, was terrified of...whatever it was she didn't want it to happen. Whether it actually would or not, only time would tell.

Thankfully, Anemone didn't seem to be friends with him, and soon he was sent on his way. Erin took Anemone's hand and squeezed it for reassurance, trying to hide the fact that her heart was hammering and she was focusing hard on her breathing. She had no doubts but what if she spoke up now, her stammer would be back again, and bad.