Chapter 4: The Beginning
Around it, we would see our favorite group of 6, 7 if we count Teddy. Sitting in Annie's lap, he was marveling at the silverware on the table. The interior of Kowalski's bakery had been transformed for dinner, candles lighting up the room and giving it a chill atmosphere.
Sitting on the opposite side of the table, Tina, looked at the niffler with wonder and asked, "How can Teddy have not already eaten all of the shiny things in his room?"
She moved her head to the side while looking at the niffler suspiciously. "You've been doing that day and night and now all of a sudden, you've stopped."
In response, Teddy put his head on Annie, as if to say something like "She is the biggest treasure I've found".
Next to Tina on the left, Newt seemed to have concentrated entirely on the ceiling.
Dumbledore, who had been quietly observing Annie and Teddy for a while, cleared his throat before saying, "Maybe as a magical creature, Teddy can detect something in Annie that is naturally dragging him to her."
His eyes shifted to the pieces of the broken blood pact in his hands and he said, "I suppose you want to know how you came here, right Annie?"
Annie looked at him, intrigued, and nodded.
"Very well, then," Dumbledore said.
"Back in Bhutan, exactly, at the moment my spell collided with Grindelwald's spell and I succeeded in protecting Aurelius from him, I felt, for a second, the world tearing apart. And, Grindelwald felt it too. Both of us thought that it happened because of the blood pact but it didn't."
He stared at Annie and continued, "We felt a disturbance. A change. Something unique, and different entering our world. We could feel it everywhere. Our bodies. Our wands. In the atmosphere. But, the most violent reaction to it came from magic itself. It tried to overpower the disturbance but it failed. The disturbance entered our world and split apart. One part of it came here while the other..."
"The other?", Annie asked with a frown.
"The other part... I don't know, honestly. Grindelwald chased it.", Dumbledore said with a sigh.
"And you let him?" Annie raised her voice, slightly.
Dumbledore looked at her calmly and replied, "I had to make a choice. Grindelwald would never have let me chase after both."
"Then?"
"And then..", Dumbledore replied, "All of us chased after the disturbance and we came here. To New York. Unfortunately, we lost it. Until..."
He smiled at Annie and continued, "Someone placed you in Mr.Kowalski's bakery. I could feel the disturbance inside you and to make sure that you weren't dangerous, we looked through your memories."
Annie narrowed her eyes at him but before she could say anything, Tina interrupted her and clarified, "Only for security purposes. Please, try to understand. We were just trying to be safe."
Annie looked at her and shook her head in anger.
Dumbledore raised his eyebrows and said, "In the process of your soul coming to our world, it changed slightly. I don't know what exactly is, but I can feel it in my magic. I suppose so can all of you."
Newt his eyes looking straight now nodded, with him Tina, Queenie, and Jacob.
"Hold on", Annie looked at Jacob with shock and asked, "You're a wizard?"
Kowalski nodded for the second time.
Annie, clearly confused and still shocked said, "B-But... How?! When I was watching your movies back in my world, you were a muggle."
"I was.", Jacob said. " But progressing onwards, after Dumbledore gave me the fake magic wand when we were chasing Grindelwald and I married Queenie I could feel something different in my skin. It happened slowly and here I am."
"So this means that muggles can become… wizards?", Annie looked with eyes wide open.
Dumbledore looked at her with that smile again. "I'm still researching it, but according to me, it could happen. But magic chooses the person whom it is gracing. Jacob has a big heart and a pure soul. Maybe that's why magic chose him."
Annie, finally, smiled back at him.
Queenie looked at Annie with worry.
"How is she? What is going on in her head?", Jacob whispered in Queenie's ear.
"Whatever would be going on in the head of a person that has endured what she has. She's trying to hide it because she doesn't know us that well, and also is looking up to us and does not want to make a bad impression of herself. Confused, angry, sad, but… there is a glimpse of light that I can see."
She spread her hand towards Annie and touched it gently, "Everything is going to be alright, sweetheart. Don't be afraid."
Annie sighed and looked at her lap, where Teddy was still tucked in, now with a blanket probably magically spelled out by one of the wizards on this table covering him up.
Then she looked up at all of them.
"I think... I need a bit of time for myself to process all of this."
"Very well, then. Take all of the time you need." Dumbledore nodded and said.
"Thank you.", Annie replied with a sigh and dismissed herself from the table.
ONE MONTH LATER
Looking at the mirror, Annie sighed. Mr. Kowalski appeared with it one day two weeks back. "You might need this.", he said then.
Looking at her reflection in the said mirror, Annie silently thanked him for bringing the mirror over, although she had no idea where he had taken it from.
Her hair was still a brighter shade of brown and curly, noting her days back in her own world, with a shorter length, barely reaching her shoulders. The same could be said about her blue eyes staring back at her from the mirror.
Refreshed, but never healed. As much as she wanted them to be, the last month of her life made her realize she had to live with her regrets, nonexistent or real. Everybody had regrets, wizards or humans.
The only thing she could do was make her family proud by doing good. They would always over from above, but ultimately they were here. She touched the left side of her chest in remembrance.
The rest of her body was slightly skinnier, having lost a bit of its curves. Pale white skin. Her height was the same. About 5'8".
She was wearing a pair of black trousers, with a leaven light blue shirt on top, followed by a knee-length coat and a pair of sparkly blue ankle boots.
She was holding a suitcase, the same shade of light blue as her shirt and ankle boots. She could hear Teddy making noises from above.
Newt Scamander had given her the niffler for "temporary companionship", although he hadn't specified until when that would be.
With a final touch, she pulled out her necklace from her mother out of the collar of the shirt.
Was she ready?
No.
She would never be ready. Ready to carry on.
But she had to.
So she started walking…