***Dante Knightley's locket with his parent's pictures in it, featuring Henry Cavill and Lily James as Aurora and Aurelius Knightley*** 

Annie woke up in the infirmary. The sun was painfully bright, making her squint as she sat up. As she continued moving, she noticed that her hand was wrapped heavily in medical gauze. She carefully rubbed her eyes before looking over at her hospital tray. She smiled when she saw all of the goodies piled up. 

The door opened. She straightened up when Professor Dumbledore came into view. He smiled gently at the girl in front of him.

"Good afternoon, Miss Potter." Melly only smiled in return. His eyes strayed to Melly's collection of goodies, and his eyes brightened. "Ah! I see that your admirers have left you tokens."

Annie's smile faded to a confused frown. 

"Admirers, Professor?" she asked politely. 

"What happened between you and Professor Quirrell is a complete secret," he promised. "But, naturally, the whole school knows."

Annie was embarrassed that the whole school knew about doing something reckless. But at the same time, she was grateful that Professor Dumbledore didn't tell them the true reason of why she had done what she did. 

"I see that Mr. Ronald Weasley has left you the tricky job of unwrapping the Chocolate Frogs."

Annie's heart skipped a beat at Ron's name. Her heart squeezed uncomfortably in guilt. 

"Ron was here? Is he alright? What about Hermione? My brother? And D-Dante?"

Her voice hitched at Dante's name. 

"Relax, dear child" Professor Dumbledore demanded. "Don't worry. They're all safe. Do you want to know why Professor Quirrell couldn't touch you?" When Annie didn't answer, he continued with a light smile. "The answer is not visible. But it lies very deep within your soul."

Annie immediately reached for her scar, but Professor Dumbledore stopped her. She put her hand down on her lap. 

"It's love, Annie. Love. It's an unbreakable, powerful power that not very many people are able to understand."

 His gaze went over to another bed nearby. She followed his gaze and her eyes widened. On the bed next to her was Dante, who was completely passed out. But she relaxed when she saw that the color began to return to his face. She smiled slightly and smiled slightly when she saw Dante's chest rising and falling slowly.

"I assume that you're very interested in Mr. Knightley's past. Is that correct?" he asked out of the blue. Annie was surprised. 

She nodded, embarrassed, refusing to meet Professor Dumbledore's eyes. But when she looked up, she was surprised to see Professor Dumbledore looking sad. A small, sad smile played on his lips, making Annie wonder what happened to him. 

"It's not my place to tell you, I'm afraid," Professor Dumbledore finally sighed. "But I'm sure he'll tell you why he behaves the way he does when he's ready. Don't judge him too harshly, Annie. He might not be the kindest person out there. But deep down, I know that there is kindness in his heart. He just needs to dig down deep inside to find it."

Annie tilted her head to the side in curiosity. "How do you know about Dante's past?"

"A certain blonde-headed Slytherin boy might have told me a thing or two about Durante Knightley at the beginning of the school year. And as I've said, wait patiently for the boy to give you his full past. And when he does, I must ask you to please not judge him afterwards."

Annie let Professor Dumbledore's words settle in, still wondering what he meant by Dante having a 'bad past'. She finally nodded. She had another question in mind that still bothered her. 

"How was it that I got the Stone, sir?"

"I was hoping that you'd ask me that, Miss Potter," said Professor Dumbledore with a bright grin. "You see, the mirror was designed for the person who wants to find the Stone to find it, but not use it, will be able to get it into their own hands." He leaned closer to the girl and added in a whisper, "That's another one of my genius ideas."

***

Annie was very bitter when Dante left the hospital wing before she did. Apparently, Madame Pomfrey had said something about keeping her for "extra monitoring". Finally, on the last night of Hogwarts, Madame Pomfrey allowed Annie to leave. She still had her hand bandaged, of course, and a few healing scratches on her face, but nothing severe. 

She walked out of the infirmary and made her way to the Great Hall. On her way there, she found Ron, Hermione, Harry, and Dante talking quietly to each other. Harry was the first to realize that his sister was alive. He turned and grinned broadly at her before running over and jumping into her arms, giving her a big hug. Annie laughed, returning the hug. 

"How are you?" Annie asked once they let go.

"I'm fine. Better now that Professor Quirrell is gone. You?"

"I'm alright." To her other friends she asked them how they were. All of them gave the same answer in response, all smiling. 

****

The Great Hall was decked in green. It came to no surprise that Slytherin had won the House Cup — for the sixth year in a row. A horrible, cheating lot, they were. Always breaking rules so that they could have things their way. 

"May I have your attention, please?" said Professor McGonagall.

The entire Great Hall went quiet, turning to face Professor Dumbledore. 

"Another year, gone. And I see that the House Cup needs awarding."

He listed the House Points. It came to no surprise that Gryffindor came in last and Slytherin came in first. Not even Professor Dumbledore seemed to be surprised. In fact, he looked quite bored. 

"Yes, yes. Well done, Slytherin. However, there have been a series of events that have recently occurred within the walls of Hogwarts. I think that these people deserve these awards for their hard work and bravery. First off, to Mr. Ronald Weasley. For being the smartest Chess player Hogwarts has seen in many years. I award him 50 points!"

Everyone cheered. Ron was beaming. 

"Second, to Miss Hermione Granger. For cool use of intellect and logic. 50 points!"

More cheering. Annie could feel her smile stretching to the point her mouth hurt. But she didn't care.

"Third, to Mr. Durante Knightley —" Annie whipped around to face Dante, who had his eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "— for sticking up to his friends and being able to resist extremely strong temptations. 50 points!"

Dante was a blushing mess as Professor Dumbledore commented him. He looked down with a slight smile, his face a bright red. Several Gryffindors near him patted him enthusiastically on the back. 

"Fourth, to Mr. Harry Potter. For sticking by his sister's side, even in the face of danger. 50 points!"

Everyone who was not in Slytherin was cheering quite enthusiastically. 

"Fifth, to Miss Annie Potter. For having a pure nerve and outstanding courage. 50 points!"

While nearly the entire Great Hall was cheering for Gryffindor, Hermione spoke to those who were listening, "We're ahead of Slytherin!"

Everyone in the Gryffindor table whispered hopefully. They put their full attention on Professor Dumbledore, eager to hear what he had to say next. Professor Dumbledore cleared his throat.

"Sixth, it takes a lot of courage to stand up for who you are and what you believe in. And for that, I award 10 points. . . . to Neville Longbottom!"

Nearly the entire Great Hall erupted in cheers. Even Professor Dumbledore looked quite pleased. Professor Snape looked absolutely livid. 

"I see that we need a bit of re-decorating," Professor Dumbledore noted. He clapped his hands. A light breeze filled the air. Melly watched in amazement as the Slytherin flags turned into Gryffindor ones. "Gryffindor wins the House Cup!"

***

The next morning, it was time for them to head home. They had about fifteen minutes left until the train departed back to London. Annie was looking everywhere for Dante, and she was beginning to panic. 

Had he already gone on the train without telling them? Did he escape to hide? 

The second question was sort of right. After searching through nearly every available room in the castle, she finally heard a sniffle. She froze before quietly making her way to the door she could hear the sniffling in. 

She peeked through the slightly cracked-opened door before knocking quietly. Another sniffle answered, followed by some scuffling around. 

"Who is it?" 

"Just me," Annie answered quietly. "Is it alright if I can come in?"

"Y-Yeah." His voice sounded higher than she'd ever heard it. "Y-You can come in."

She carefully pushed the door open and saw Dante shedding tears while desperately trying to wipe his tears away. Annie noticed him clutching something tightly in his hands, which shook. Her heart reached out for him. 

"Are you okay?" she finally asked. 

"I guess," he answered, sighing heavily. "I mean, I don't want to go back to Malfoy Manor and live with cruel relatives. I just want to go back home with my own parents."

Annie hesitated before wrapping an arm around his shoulders, doing her best to support him. Dante was surprised, but he didn't object. "You don't have to go back with them. You can always stay with me and Ron."

More tears came from his eyes. 

"She won't trust me, especially if she finds out that I'm related to the Malfoys," he answered, his voice barely above a whisper. His eyes were wide with guilt. 

"We'll get her to trust you," Annie reassured him. "And, Dante. Professor Dumbledore told me that you had a bad past. He didn't go into details."

Dante's body stiffened. Tears blurred his sight again. Dante gently grabbed his hand though she hesitated. She was afraid that he would pull his hand away. But she was surprised when he just clung her hand tightly. Something inside her stirred. Warmth spread through her body, but in a comfortable way. 

"I'll tell you one day, when I feel more comfortable," he promised. "But not right now." He paused. "Annie, I want to apologize for the way I behaved when we first met each other. I was just scared. Can we, maybe, please start over? If you're comfortable with it, I mean."

Annie smiled. "Of course we can, Dante. We can start over."

He smiled back and took his hand out of Annie's before offering it to her to shake her hand in a more formal gesture. 

"Hi, I'm Durante Knightley. Nice to meet you," he greeted. 

Annie took his hand, shaking it.

"And I'm Annie Potter. It's nice to meet you, too, Dante."

He smiled and pulled her into a hug. The hug caught Annie off-guard, but she overall accepted it. She was glad to finally befriend this self-conscious boy.