« THE BURROW »
A cold shiver brushed past Anastasia's covered arm as she stood right in front of the door. Under her breath, she muttered different ways to greeting the Weasley's and creating several lies of why she was standing there in the doorway. Eventually, she raised her hand and knocked two times.
She exhaled deeply and closed her eyes to make her heartbeat get calm and her legs to stop shaking of nervousness. After all, she basically ran away from the Malfoy's manor to spend the holidays with them.
"Annie!" Ron was the one who opened the door. "You are here!" He seemed happy as he hugged the girl tight.
"Who is it, dear?" Anastasia heard Mrs. Weasley's voice from inside and smiled when the caught the sight of the quiet girl. "Anastasia, you are here!" The woman happily strode to her and embraced the brunette in a tight hug, just like Ron did. "Welcome, dear. We've been waiting for you."
"I couldn't wait until tomorrow." Anastasia smiled, letting Ron take the trunk from her and put it away. It wasn't particularly a lie; she really couldn't wait to feel the welcoming love of a family.
"Oh, dear! You are so sweet!" The ginger woman embraced her once more when Harry ran down the stairs and smiled when he saw one of his friends in the doorway.
"Annie!" He smiled and hugged the girl tightly, the girl's heart melt at the love she was receiving. "I'm really glad we get to spend the holidays together." The boy hugged her once more and soon the entire family was dragging her to the dining room.
"You must be hungry." Mrs. Weasley paced around the kitchen and searched for her cooking utensils. "Let me prepare something for you." She smiled and Anastasia simply nodded.
"How was living with the Malfoy's?" Ron asked, making Anastasia's heart sank at the thought of Draco and the life she left behind.
"It was..." She trailed off, discretely glancing at her forearm. "Alright." She continued, curving the end of her lips in a half-smile.
"They didn't hurt you, right?" Mr. Weasley questioned, crossing his arms with a worried look. "If they—"
"You don't need to worry." The emerald-eyed girl spoke, sending a reassuring smile to the family. "I'm completely sane." She lied, but no one seemed to notice.
"Is it true Malfoy sleeps with a teddy bear?" Fred jokily questioned, gaining a laugh from Anastasia.
"I wouldn't know." The girl shrugged, glancing at the twins with a smirk.
Mrs. Weasley placed a plate with food in front of the girl and she shyly started to eat, trying her best to not fill her mouth with too much food, just like her mother taught her.
Anastasia carefully listened to the conversation as she silently ate the food and sighed deeply when she felt herself getting full.
"Thank you so much, Mrs. Weasley." The girl stood up and gave the woman the plate. "It was delicious." She shyly spoke, almost like she didn't want to be listened.
"Oh, it's nothing dear." The woman caressed Anastasia's cheek in a motherly way. "This is your house." Something in the girl's face changed when those words left the woman's mouth. Almost everyone noticed.
"Can—Can I hug you?" The words came out so soft that nobody listened, only Mrs. Weasley did and she only smiled widely at the girl in front of her. The woman embraced Anastasia in her warm arms and the girl let herself crumble inside.
"It's everything alright, dear?"
"I'm just tired." The girl replied. "Can I be excused?"
"Of course." Mrs. Weasley nodded rigorously and looked between her children. "Ginny, can you please guide Annie to your room? I'm afraid you two will share."
Ginny nodded with a half-smile and walked to Anastasia who looked at everything with amazement. Eventually, she followed the younger of the family through the place and finally entered a rather big room with Quidditch posters all over the walls.
"It's not much—" Ginny began, knowing Anastasia came from a wealthy family and she was probably used to luxuries.
"It's perfect." To the girl's surprise, Anastasia smiled wide as she eyed her surroundings with joy.
"Alright. I'll leave you alone to get settled." She nodded and walked out of the room in silence.
Anastasia quickly opened her trunk and searched for her sleep clothes. She knew she needed to hide the mark with them but with a hiding spell as well, she had to make sure no one would know about it.
She didn't hear the whispers on the first floor, or Ginny entering the room. Her eyes were lost in the bright moon that illuminated the place. Her eyes glanced at her forearm before falling asleep in the darkness of Ginny's room.
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The family was completely silent when Anastasia came down to the first floor for breakfast. Something in the air didn't feel right when the group looked at her with worried eyes and today's newspaper placed in the middle of the table. Ron stood up at the sight of the girl.
"Annie..." He whispered, frowning.
"Is everything alright?" The worry had adorned her refined features as she walked to the table. When her eyes caught the sight of her brother's face in the front page, she felt her heart sink.
THE LAST ROSIER HEIR DEAD. WILLIAM ROSIER'S DEATH IS THE SIGNAL WE NEEDED.
Anastasia's lower lip quivered when her fingers brushed past her brother's picture in the newspaper. Something inside her moved when William's bright smile greeted her like he wasn't dead, like she wasn't the reason he had died. The old picture moved but for the girl's eyes it didn't; it stayed still as the now dead boy smiled at her.
"An—" Harry quickly began but he was instantly interrupted.
"I know." She said quietly, her eyes never leaving the picture. "They killed him."
"Who?" Ron asked, frowning at the moving picture.
"The Death-Eaters."
"But why? Why would they kill William?" Harry asked, silently dreading her answer.
"Because I defied them." Anastasia finally looked up to meet his eyes.
"So you...?" Ginny trailed off, looking at the girl with a mix of fix and betray.
"They made me one of them, they threatened to kill my family if I didn't do anything they ordered me to."
"What did they want you to do?" George spoke up, frowning.
"Voldemort thought that if Harry didn't have anyone close with him, it would be easier to defeat him, so they wanted me to kill Professor Lupin." She sighed. "I didn't, so they killed William."
The room was silent. Anastasia mentally prepared herself to be thrown away once again and lose another important thing for her. She wanted to scream, let everything out but she kept still and looked at the picture in a vain attempt to find comfort in William's smile.
"Annie..." She looked up when Harry walked to her, her first instinct was to back off, her mind yelled at her that they might hurt her. "It's alright." He gently placed his hand above hers in the table.
"You don't hate me?" The confusion was now all over her facial expressions as she glanced up at the boy.
"Why would I?" He asked, frowning. "You sacrificed everything to not hurt me. I'm sorry." He hugged her tight.
Ron hesitantly stood up and with slow steps scooted closer to the girl, Anastasia eyed him as he awkwardly tried to speak but instead embraced her in a hug.
"What about your mom? Your dad?" The ginger quietly asked, frowning.
"When they heard the news about, well, me becoming one of them; they disowned me. They think William's death is my fault."
"Oh, dear." Mrs. Weasley made her way through her children and threw herself to the girl, embracing her in a tight hug full of love.
"Well, quite a way to celebrate Christmas." Fred sarcastically interfered, gaining a few laughs from the family.
Soon enough, the family, with their newly added member, gathered around the living room and began to give the gifts to their owners. Anastasia didn't expect to receive a pair of gifts, and she felt bad when she noticed she only brought a few for the large family.
"This one is for you, dear." Mrs. Weasley handed the girl a home-made wrapped present. The girl smiled widely and hugged the woman quick. "I hope it's enough." The woman smiled shyly and Anastasia wondered how many rude comments they should've received to be this over-explanatory of their belongings.
The girl sat on the floor and undid the wrappings. Her eyes widened at the sight of an emerald oversized sweater. Her hands brushed past the soft material and held it up to get a better look of it. Anastasia couldn't stop herself from gasping when she saw the big A in the middle.
"It's beyond perfect. Thank you so much." The girl quickly stood up and hugged the woman with love.
"Welcome to the family, sweetie." Mrs. Weasley whispered in her ear.
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AUTHOR'S NOTE:
I just want to thank every single one of you who have read, voted and commented in this story. Because of you we reached 1k reads and I couldn't be anymore grateful for it.
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