Reunited With One's Past (Anya)

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Vanessa was happy to have seen Thomas Weasley as of late. She hadn't seen him since Hogwarts. It was always good to see people from one's past...

Well almost.

Today Vanessa would encounter two people from her past. One was a good encounter- Anya Higgs, a friend from Hogwarts that shared her love for animals. She was going to be delighted to see her of course.

The second encounter was the bad one, and fortunately the encounter turned out to be nothing more than a brief passing. Vanessa was walking with her Siberian Husky Boris when she saw none other than Dathan Burke walking with his wolf Eligos. While he didn't spot her, Vanessa stood stunned as a flashback hit her...

She was eight and a young Burke had come to visit her real father. Otho Veltrino spoke of how Vanessa was his pride and joy, but was having trouble learning the dark arts. Dathan offered to help for a price, and that lead to a nightmarish week at Burke's shop, one that scarred Vanessa to this day. That week almost turned her into a monster like the rest of her family. It was this event that finally caused her to flee from home.

Vanessa now stood stunned and shaking, Boris whimpering as he sensed her dismay.

@anya

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Anya had spent the last few weeks in Scotland’s famous Loch Ness tracking the Kelpie population and wondering how the exotic species tracking team could continue to keep this species away from the public, muggle eye. The Loch had been a popular tourist destination and the ex-Hufflepuff and her trusty sidekick, Hank the Squirrel had encountered a lot of muggles on their trip, Hank had only left her shoulder a few times while they were abroad and that was only in order to go to the bathroom or inspect something new and then promptly run back to her and climb up her back and onto her shoulder. The young woman knew that she had permanent scratches along her back, shoulder and neck from her best friend, but it was something that she would always just put up with.

Anya had decided to take advantage of her day off and the fact that she was finally back home by going to the famous wizarding location, Diagon Alley. She wasn’t sure of what drew her to the public place. She had always enjoyed the company of animals way more than that of people, but it had been a while since she had proper human interaction and she felt it was probably needed. Hanging around with no one but a Squirrel, while interesting and fun, was a little weird. So, with Hank on her shoulder, she walked through the street, stopping when she saw a familiar face and saying hello. Anya had always been seen as weird, mostly, because she hated wearing shoes and always wore flowy, colorful, floral skirts and dresses rather than pants or anything modern and stylish. “Vanessa?” she asked seeing yet another familiar face. They had been friends in school; however, her friend looked disturbed, “are you alright?”

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Vanessa still stood in her trance until the a familiar voice, though one she hadn't heard in some time, spoke to her. She looked over and stared at her old friend before finally smiling at her.

"Anya... hello," she said, trying to sound pleasant. "I'm sorry, I was just... lost in thought for a moment I suppose. I'm fine." Boris still whimpered a bit and Vanessa pet him.

"Hey, I'm fine, silly boy," she said to him. She then looked up at Anya. "It's good to see you again. I can imagine you've been up to a great deal, well if you ended up getting that tracker job you were after that is." There was still a nervous tone in Vanessa's voice. "Oh... this is Boris, and on your shoulder... Hank, right?" She remembered Hank well, but always had trouble remembering his name due to all the animals she had come in contact with. She wasn't able to bring Boris to Hogwarts, so she often interacted with the animals of others.

"I was about to get something from the bakery," she said. "Would you like to join me?"

@anya

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Anya was happy to see her friend on the street. The two of them weren't extremely close, but Anya was a friendly, sweet girl and she didn't like to say that she wasn't friends with anybody. Everyone deserved friends. Hank was Anya's best friend. She had never expected to become best friends with a common tree squirrel, but then again, Hank wasn't common. Anything but. He, just like herself, was seen as different, an outcast of his own kind. They found kinship in each other and had been together every moment since. "It's nice to see you." Anya smiled and reached her hand down so the dog could smell her and warm up to her. "I would love to get coffee, though, I don't know if they allow Animals..." she added with a glance to the young man who was hanging off her shoulder to get a better look at the other furry creature below.

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Vanessa smiled when Anya said it was nice to see her. It was really great to see friends again. Anya was one of a number of Hufflepuffs that Vanessa had befriended in school. The only House Vanessa avoided making friends from in school was Slytherin. It wasn't because she felt everyone in Slytherin was bad. It was just that she had fought so hard to convince the Sorting Hat to put her in Gryffindor instead of Slytherin. She had a bad feeling about being connected to the latter house whatsoever... the House of her blood ancestors.

Vanessa smiled and gave Hank a little pet.

"They're definitely allowed," she said. "Mr. Zephyr is my employer Donalda's husband and that family loves animals. I believe their daughter Viona was in the Magical Creatures Club when you were the captain. She always spoke of how wonderful you were."

Boris sniffed Anya's hand and panted happily, expecting her to pet him now. Despite no magical animal affinity on Vanessa's part, the dog sensed when a person was her mistress' friend.

Vanessa held the door for Anya at the bakery, then was greeted by Alpin, who also said hello to Anya and both the pets.

@anya