Despite the life-changing trial Anika had sat through, her return to Hogwarts went without incident. The only change was that it seemed she had become an overnight celebrity.

The court proceedings had been covered in depth in the Daily Prophet, and pictures of her face appeared in almost every issue of the Prophet for the next few weeks until a dramatic attack of a well-known Muggleborn shop owner in Diagon Alley took over the headlines.

Her new-found celebrity status had its perks, but also its negative side effects. She became a target for the Slytherin's horrible remarks but also their spells. The Gryffindor students closed ranks around Anika, seemingly taking it upon themselves to protect her. Lily, Mary and Marlene were with her always, joined by Alice Fortescue and Dorcas Medows who were third-year Gryffindors who had taken a liking to Lily and therefore joined the ranks of those surrounding Anika.

Others also joined what Marlene had dubbed as 'The Anika Protection Squad' including Frank Longbottom and Bertram Aubrey who were in the same year as Alice and Dorcas.

Anika felt that there was a Slytherin waiting at every corner to fire a jinx at her, and she subsequently had to make several trips to the hospital wing in the coming months.

"No really Alice I'm okay to make my way back to the common room myself," Anika insisted after having been hexed on the way to one of Gryffindor's Quidditch matches in late March. She knew that Alice would be upset to miss the Quidditch game as it was Bertram's first match playing Chaser. James Potter had earned the position that year but found himself so often in detention that the captain had decided to bring in the second-best chaser from tryouts as their substitute. James Potter had found himself in detention that day due to hexing a Slytherin who had shot a spell at Anika which had missed and hit Lily causing her nose to double in size.

"Are you sure Anika? I don't mind waiting for you, really," Alice put up only a half-hearted protest to Anika's statement.

"I'm sure Alice, go and watch the match, I'll be fine here," Anika said. Alice smiled at the girl and bade her goodbye before leaving the hospital wing.

Anika sighed and removed her hand from the cut on her arm which had not ceased bleeding since the hex that a sixth year Slytherin had sent her way had struck her there.

"What can I help you with Miss Smith?" Madam Pomfrey bustled out of her office holding a phial with a potion in it, which she set down on the bedside table of one of the empty beds.

"Miss Flamel," Anika reminded the woman. In correspondence with Nicholas and Perenelle, Anika had decided to shed the name of the unknown baby which had been left on the doorstep of Borgin and Burke's and claim the name that should have been her's all along- Flamel.

"What can I do for you Miss Flamel," Madam Pomfrey corrected herself.

In answer, Anika revealed the cut on her arm.

"Would you care to tell me how this happened?" The matron asked, examining the wound, "this has traces of dark magic causation."

"I didn't see who did it," Anika replied. This was a lie. Anika knew that it had been Crabbe who had done it, but she had found that if she reported her attackers there would only be more attacks thrown her way, so she had begun opting to keep silent.

"Hmm," the Matron mused, not believing Anika's statement, "Take a seat, I'll go and gather the potions I need to heal it as best I can."

Anika took a seat on the bed indicated to her and looked around the hospital wing. It was only then that she noticed a tired-looking Remus Lupin in one of the beds. The boy's leg was wrapped in a clean bandage and he was staring right back at her.

"What happened to you?" Anika asked him.

"I tripped on one of the trick steps, and sliced my leg open," Remus answered quickly, too quickly. He was almost as bad of a liar as Anika.

"Does it hurt?" Anika asked.

"Immensely."

*

The rest of her second year passed in a similar fashion. She grew closer with Alice, Dorcas, Frank and Beautram, along with growing more comfortable with the idea of going to Paris over the summer to live with her new guardians Nicholas and Perenelle, who had made a point to write to her as often as possible.

Anika spent the Easter Holidays with the Flamels and had felt immediately comfortable around the old couple. They had treated her with love and respect that Anika was initially uncomfortable with, but soon settled into accepting.

Frank invited the group to join him for a weekend at his family's house over the summer and Anika accepted the invitation excitedly, eager to catch up with her new friends after several weeks of not seeing them.

The Flamels made plans for the rest of the summer, including tours of many important wizarding locations around France. Anika thanked Merlin that Mr Borgin had insisted she learn French from a young age as French was the native tongue of the Flamels and it excited them both to know she spoke their language.

Anika spent days in Nicholas' laboratory with him learning about his work and admiring the Philosopher's Stone. During these times Nicholas took it upon himself to begin teaching her some more advanced magic, insisting that the Hogwarts curriculum was not challenging her.

"By the end of your second year at Beauxbattons you'd have been casting wandless magic already," the man insisted as he took Anika's wand from her and began to coach her in wandless magic.

"I shouldn't be doing magic outside of school," Anika reminded him in a good-humoured voice, indicating that she was not complaining about the extra lessons.

"I have it on good authority that the trace does not apply to you," Nicholas told her, "Albus- Professor Dumbledore told me that the ministry has been trying to get to the bottom of this issue ever since the trial."

Anika was slightly surprised to learn this but somewhat smug to know that the underage magic laws could not be enforced on her.

She put this to good use when she spent the weekend with her friends at Longbottom House.

Longbottom House was huge but very welcoming. The house itself was white with dark wood linings and decorations all over it, despite its size, it had the look of a cottage which made Anika love it. The grounds were beautiful too, with winding hedges which opened up to many hidden sections of the garden. The garden had a small lake within its confines, and it was there that the group of teenagers (comprising of Anika, Lily, Mary, Marlene, Alice, Dorcas, Bertram, Frank and William Fawley, another friend of Frank's whom Anika had met a few times) found themselves lounging in the sun of the mid-August afternoon.

Anika spent the day laughing with her friends, splashing around in the lake and jumping into the lake from one of the taller trees whose branches reaches out across the lake and provided a perfect spot to jump from.

Anika had watched all of her friends one by one jump from the branches but was unwilling to do so herself.

"Come on Ani," Lily was treading water in the lake, begging Anika to have a try at jumping from the tree. "Just give it a try."

Anika huffed and found herself inching up the branches of the tree, eventually sitting down at the spot the others had jumped from, unable to push herself off and plummet into the lake.

Bertram walked along the tree and sat himself down beside Anika.

"Why haven't you jumped yet?" he asked her.

"Would you laugh if I told you I was scared of heights?" Anika asked nervously.

"There is nothing to be scared of, come on we'll do it together."