Chapter 20: Passing Time By Making Potions?
"Aaaaah!", She screamed in despair as she lost her balance and slipped from its back.
BAM
"Ow! Owie! Damnit, my ass! God, it hurts so much!"
The fucking ground… probably the only thing that could make Annie hateful.
She hated it so much, hated how it hurt her butt.
It felt like a thousand needles had found their home inside her body. So much so that she felt as if her butt was on fire.
She tried to move herself a bit to ease the pain the ground had caused her.
"Fuck you a thousand times!!!", she cursed angrily at it and sighed deeply.
She tried to fight the anger, knew it was pointless, but a part of her would always look to get purposefully angry at something just for the sake of being angry.
That feeling seemed to fill her up and give her a fake sense of purpose, but only momentarily.
After several hours, she would suddenly find herself staring blankly and not feeling anything at all.
Then, she would go around on a 180-degree roller coaster and start crying. It would make her feel like she belonged to a nuthouse.
Anyway… she had to stop acting like a kid.
After several minutes of trying to get up, Annie sighed and simply closed her eyes as she let her body relax on that same ground she hated the most in the world a second ago.
She just needed a bit of a break to stop thinking about what happened to her butt.
Other than that… it was so peaceful there.
The vast area that surrounded them was a forest full of oak and pine trees with birds singing from a distance.
The sight and sounds of the pure beauty of nature soothed Annie to a point where a breeze as soft as velvet came to gently rub her skin.
She smelled the fragrance of the various kinds of flowers from the trees nearby and felt rejuvenated.
New York was amazing, but the tranquility which the forest gave her a different kind of buzz.
The feeling the forest gave her was indescribable. She had been to many forests with her family in her past life but she was more scared than relaxed over there.
But, here... something was soothing. Something magical.
She could fall asleep while listening to the birds chirping.
Annie was almost asleep when she felt something wet touching her eyes.
She opened her eyes and quickly closed them back, the light momentarily blinding her because of the sudden movement.
Now, squinting them, she looked up and saw a pair of familiar dark brown eyes looking back at her.
"Teddy!", She exclaimed happily at the niffler.
Blinking his cute eyes at her, he licked her cheek. To wake her up.
"You felt lonely, didn't you?", Annie said while smirking at the niffler.
"You're starting to transform into an obedient little dog."
Teddy scratched her back with his paw.
"Okay, okay. You want me to start calling you my kid?"., she asked.
In response, Teddy started sniffling her. Then, he put his head between her neck and shoulders.
Annie rolled her eyes happily and kissed the top of his head while saying, "You gave me a good enough answer."
Suddenly, she heard something in her ears.
"Feeling better now?", a familiar voice said. One that came deep into her being.
"What?!", Annie screamed, got up and sat, now holding Teddy in her hands, and looked around, or… she at least tried to. Her hair covered half her eyes, not allowing her to properly look around until a cold breeze made it go away.
'Where was that from?', She thought.
She noticed Hungarian Horntail lying on the ground, its small pointy eyes staring back at her with unyielding power.
"Well… thank you, Mister.", Annie blurted out, surprised and bowed at it.
The Hungarian Horntail lowered its huge head in response. Out of respect for her.
Her eyes went wide at the respect it had for her and she couldn't help but have ridiculous thoughts.
"Please don't tell me I'm one of those insanely powerful heroes from the books and movies..", Annie thought to herself while shaking her head in disbelief.
The only thing left for her to be now was to her have kingdom or army.
She didn't need that. She only needed something to pass the time with, so that she would not be left completely alone with her thoughts.
So, she chose Potion Making. She was obsessed with potions. Not that she wasn't obsessed with anything related to the Harry Potter franchise but she had memorized everything by heart.
Potion making was not something an ordinary human being like herself would be "passing the time with", but it was only useful that she somehow knew every single thing about potions. It was not a win-or-lose situation.
'I do not have a family. Or a boyfriend. If I died, I don't think anybody would have noticed. And I'm fine with it.', She thought.
"I think you're wrong about that, girl."
That voice. Again.
Annie had forgotten about it. Finally, with her hair out of her face, she looked on the ground.
Lying on her left, there was a wand.
Annie narrowed her eyes at it and said suspiciously, "Wait a damn minute…"
"Hello!", the wand greeted her.
"H-how… how are you h-here?! You were supposed to be in London!", Annie looked at it in disbelief.
"I'm wherever the one that can talk with me wishes.", replied the wand, "Do you think you would only talk to me and use me once? If that's the case, you haven't guessed right. And even if you did… you wouldn't have been able to get away from me, girl. You are drawing me to yourself."
Annie kept silent.
"Anyway, do you want to see your potions station? I have prepared everything for you."
Hearing "Potions Station", Annie's eyes lightened.
And, that was all the wand needed to know.