A/N: I really couldn't resist posting another one because I feel like the last chapter was so boring! This one is just another filler but at least we've got some Draco-Anna interaction to hold us over until the next chapter, which is MUCH MUCH MUCH more interesting ;)

Again, thanks so much for all of the support so far, this is awesome and I can only hope that it keeps getting better!

Also, I just wanted to let you all know that if you would like to put a face on Anna, the actress that I based her off of is Lily Collins, hence the cover photo (that's Lily if you hadn't noticed lol). I absolutely love her and think she's gorgeous and perfect in every way! I hope I don't disappoint your imaginations, but I thought it might help give a better explanation of Anna!


Anna was grateful when she finally went back to school. She had always loved the Burrow and was thankful for everything that her aunt and uncle had done for her but the house now held a reason for her to hate it. And it was that same reason that she knew she'd never be able to look at the house the same again. Her parents had died inside, on the second floor, in Percy's old bedroom.

How was she supposed to live there when the memory of her parents lingered in the air every moment of every day? Was she just supposed to forget that the whole ordeal ever happened? Pretend like her parents hadn't died in the room right above her and Ginny's bedroom?

She was so angry with herself and with the people that had killed them. She was mad at herself because she should have been smarter, should have made her mother apparate them somewhere safe. It was stupid of her not to think ahead, not to anticipate Bellatrix to do something so terrible. The woman was crazy and she felt no sympathy towards others, of course she would set the house on fire without even thinking twice.

Anna had never been a violent person, she wasn't raised to feel hatred towards other people but in that very moment, when she realized that her parents were gone, she finally knew how it felt to truly and utterly hate someone. She thought she'd hated Malfoy and his band of idiots for years but she now knew that those feelings were nothing compared to the amount of pure loathing she felt for the two Death Eaters that set fire to the Burrow. And if she were ever given the chance, she would get her revenge.

She had yet to see Malfoy. She looked for him on the train but he must have never left the Slytherin car where he sat with all of his friends. He wasn't at dinner either and that really made her begin to wonder. The Malfoy family crest still hung around her neck, resting in the middle of her chest, underneath her layers of clothing. She couldn't let anyone know that she was wearing it or she'd be done for. She wasn't even sure why she was wearing it.

She wondered if Malfoy knew about her parents. Bellatrix was, after all, his aunt and she was notorious for her gloating skills. He had to know. Perhaps that was why she hadn't seen him yet, maybe he was avoiding her. Maybe he felt guilty for what happened.

Stop it, Anna. This is Malfoy you're talking about.

She still hoped that maybe he did.

McGonagall had informed her during dinner that she would no longer need to tutor Malfoy unless he started falling behind again. As much as that should have made Anna happy, it didn't. Her meetings with Draco were…tense to say the least, especially after their last session, but they also allowed her time to think, time to get away from everything else. A distraction that had become part of her daily routine. She needed something like that now more than ever and it was gone.

"Thank God you're all alright," Hermione was saying at dinner as they told her about the events of the Burrow. Then she looked at Anna with the same look of pity that she'd been getting since her parents died. "Anna, I'm so sorry for your loss."

Anna offered her friend a smile. "Thanks, Hermione."

The frizzy haired girl reached across the table and took her hand. "Really, if you need anything, you can talk to me."

Anna knew that she meant it. She might not have been as close to Hermione as she was to Ginny, but they were still good friends and Anna was glad that she had someone else she could go to with her problems. Not that any of them would ever be able to understand.

Everybody in the school seemed to know about her parents and they all made it a point to express their sympathies. Anna knew they were just being nice but it got so annoying after a while. She wished people would just stop talking about it so she could stop thinking about it. She just wanted some peace of mind. But she knew she wasn't going to get it, at least not until she talked to Malfoy.

After the feast, Anna cornered him near the Prefect's bathroom on the fifth floor, shoving him into a dark hallway where nobody could see them, pressing him up against the cold wall as she stood in front of him to block his path.

"What the hell Gilbert?" he grunted through his teeth, glaring at her with heated eyes.

"We need to talk," she told him firmly.

"There's nothing to talk about," he dismissed with a sneer.

Anna's eyes widened and she put her hands on her hips. "Yes, there is, Malfoy, so stop being a prat and listen to me-"

"I'm not talking to you about anything. We shouldn't even be here right now," he growled and started to push past her but she place her hand on his chest before he could move, holding him there.

"Why are you pushing me away?"

He scoffed. "You've never seemed to have a problem with it before, Gilbert. Why don't you do us both a favor and bugger off?"

Okay, now he was really getting on her nerves again.

"Is it such a crime for you to act like a civil human being for once in your life, Malfoy?" she hissed, glaring at him with a look that she hoped was at least semi-scary.

He snorted. "When it comes to associating with someone inferior to me, yes, it is."

She didn't know what had come over her but she couldn't resist placing both of her hands and shoving him hard. His back collided roughly with the wall and she barely had a second to react before he grasped her shoulders and spun them, reversing their positions.

"How dare you-"

"You are such a thick, stubborn ass, Malfoy!" she cut him off, raising her voice and ignoring the fact that there might be people around to hear them. She didn't care. "Can't you see that I'm only trying to help you?"

He rolled her eyes, clearly not impressed. "You can't help me, Gilbert. No one can," he growled and then made to leave but her hand shot out, catching his robe and pulling him back.

"Malfoy, wait, please," she said and her voice was calmer now but she could hear the desperation and was sure he could hear it too. "I just want-"

"What happened to your arm?" he asked suddenly and she realized he wasn't even looking at her and probably wasn't listening either. Sighing, she followed his gaze to where it was resting on her bandaged wrist, exposed as she held her arm up to his chest and the sleeve of her robe fell away.

"I…..got burned," she told him skeptically.

"How?" he pressed and she looked up to meet his eyes and saw that they were wide with what looked like anger and then something mixed with fear and sadness.

She swallowed, not wanting to relive the memory as she could already feel the tears forming in her eyes. She didn't want to cry, not there, not in front of Malfoy. He couldn't see her like that again.

She wasn't aware of it at first, but she suddenly felt something sliding up the side of her bandaged arm and she looked down to see that it was his hand, gently gliding across the fabric of the bandage. He took hold of her wrist but the touch was so gentle that she could hardly feel it

"It's from that night isn't it? When Bellatrix attacked Weasley's home," he said and it wasn't a question, it was a statement. He knew what happened. He knew what that crazy woman had done.

Fearing that her voice would betray her, Anna only nodded, keeping her eyes focused on how carefully his hands were holding her wrist.

"Does it hurt?

"Not much anymore," her voice was quiet. "The fire was cursed and it's taking longer to heal than a regular burn so I have to keep the bandage on longer than normal."

For a while they didn't say anything else and Malfoy just held her arm in his long fingers and even though her skin was concealed by the bandage, it was as if she could feel the heat of his touch right against her flesh and it made the wound feel that much better and in that moment, for a split second, she couldn't remember why she had hated him so much.

"Draco-"

He ripped his hands away, as if they were on fire, and hers fell to her side as she flinched at his sudden movement.

"Don't call me that," he hissed and turned away.

"But-"

"Leave me alone, Gilbert. You don't have to tutor me anymore, we have no reason to even interact from here on out. We can go back to hating each other."

Anna's eyes were wide with hurt and she hated herself for it. She shouldn't care that he was saying those things but she did. And she hated it.

"Malfoy, please just….calm down."

"I am calm," he told her with a glare. "I'll be better when you get the hell out of my way and leave me be. We'll both be better off."

Anna didn't know what to say. She was still in shock of what was going on. How could he go from being so gentle one moment to so hostile the next?

Not knowing what else to do, she reluctantly moved away from him and he immediately stalked away without even a glance back at her. She watched him go and realized once again that Malfoy had left her dazed and confused.


Avoiding her was the only logical solution that he could come up with. If he wasn't near her, if he didn't talk to her, if he didn't look at her eyes, he could forget about her. He could erase her from his mind like she was never there at all. It was for the best, he didn't deserve to be around her anyways. She was too good for him. Her light was too bright for his dark soul. They were from two completely different worlds with two completely different views. He needed to get over whatever crazy, fucked up feelings he was having for that girl because it would never be in the cards for them anyways. Even if he wanted to be with her, he never could.

Draco knew that if by some miracle he survived the war, his parents would have him betrothed to a woman almost immediately and that woman would most likely be Parkinson – as much as he dreaded the idea of spending the rest of his life with that lunatic - or one of the Greengrass sisters, he was sure of it. Purebloods were supposed to breed with Purebloods, that was the way it went, there were no exceptions. If a Pureblood mated with anything other than another Pureblood, it was unacceptable. His mother's other sister, Andromeda had found that out when she married a muggle-born. She was ultimately disowned by her family members, cut from the Black Family Tree, and labeled as a Blood-Traitor. Draco had never even spoken to her, only having encountered her in passing once in Diagon Alley when he was a boy and his parents had ushered him away quickly. He hardly knew what she looked like.

He'd never questioned it before, always having trusted his family's words and beliefs and they'd actually made sense to him up until a few months ago, before he started those bloody tutoring lessons with Gilbert. He knew she was different than him, that her blood was tainted and he tried so hard to find those flaws, the signs that indicated to him that she was in fact half-blooded. He'd studied her every night they met, he was sure she thought him perverse because he stared so much but he couldn't help it. He couldn't stop searching for just a tiny little sign, something to prove to him that everything he knew was true. But he never found anything. In fact, he'd found just the opposite.

There wasn't anything different about them, except for the obvious observations. She was a teenager, just a year behind him. She liked similar things to him and she wanted to be a Mediwitch when she got older and work at St. Mungo's. She was an only child, just like he was and her favorite candy was Every Flavor Beans, just like him.

He found they had more things in common than not. Despite their differences in house opinions, obviously those would always be present, there were plenty of other things that they talked about and even agreed on most times. She was one of the easier people to talk to and Draco had stupidly found himself hanging onto her every word. He was almost positive that was what had led to his behavior the night of the Christmas party. That, and his frustration at Snape, who also couldn't seem to mind his own business either.

That was why he knew he had to put an end to it. He had allowed it to go on long enough and it had gone too far. Hopefully it wasn't too late to change things, hopefully he could just flush her out of his system without any trouble.

He focused on other things, literally anything else, Pansy being one of those things. He took her to the broom closet as often as he could, hoping it would be enough to get rid of the forbidden thoughts about the Gryffindor.

He put most of his energy into fixing the Vanishing Cabinet. His time spent in the Room of Requirement had to be more limited considering Pansy always wanted to know where he was and was always wondering what he was doing, considering what he father had told her. In order for him to make sure she kept her mouth shut about what she thought she knew, he had to keep shagging her. The bitch was practically blackmailing him into sleeping with her but he couldn't really complain, it allowed himself the relief he needed to keep his thoughts away from the brunette that he secretly wanted the company of.

He definitely missed their time in the library. It had been a great way to take his mind off of the bloody war that was inevitable. It was so close now that he could practically taste it and the library had served as a sanctuary for him to retreat to. The lessons allowed him to get away from the harsh reality of the world. It was only for a few hours, but it was enough to keep his sanity intact.

Now, he wasn't sure if he'd ever be the same. His mind was swimming with different thoughts, most of them centering around what he was doing and what he should have been doing. Which side he should be fighting for. The thoughts were ripping him in half, forcing him to choose and he didn't want to. He knew what his choice had to be but he wasn't so sure if that was what he wanted anymore. How could he fight for the person who had taken everything from him? His freedom, his mind, his family – everything. Voldemort controlled him completely, no matter what, so what choice did he have but to obey him? If he didn't he risked losing the few things in his life that he actually cared for.

But if he chose differently, how would things change? What if he chose to ignore his beliefs and what his parents expected of him? What if he allowed himself to think about Gilbert the way that he really wanted to? Or indulge in the secret fantasies that had developed in his mind that only seemed to involve his green-eyed witch? What if he finally stopped fighting against Potter and started fighting beside him? Would it make a difference? Would it make up for the terrible things he'd already done in his life? Would it be enough to stop the darkness from swallowing him up whole?

There were so many questions that he couldn't answer and he knew that they would more than likely remain that way.


She didn't speak to Malfoy for weeks. He would show up to his classes but he never paid any attention. He didn't look at her either, not even a glance, while she managed to stare whole-heartedly at him during each class she had with him. It started to get obvious when Ginny finally asked her why she was staring.

"I was just trying to see if I could tell what kind of product he puts in his hair," she had replied with a chuckle. "I wonder if it would work on mine."

Ginny laughed at her comment and went back to whatever she was doing in class while Anna continued to stare at Malfoy. Dammit, why wouldn't he look at her? How could he just forget about the letter that he sent her, or the fact that she had his bloody family crest hanging around her neck? He wasn't acknowledging her at all and Anna wanted to know why.

It had been about three months since the holiday, the month of April had just begun. Another attempt at Dumbledore's life was made, only having to been redirected by Ron when he was given an antidote from Slughorn for a love potion and it poisoned him. Slughorn was supposed to give the potion to Dumbledore as a gift. Thankfully Harry was able to save Ron's life although he did have to spend a night in the hospital wing. He had murmured Hermione's name in his sleep in front of Lavender, ultimately leading her to break up with him – thank Merlin.

Her grief for her parents was still there and she couldn't shake the feeling of guilt that she had. In her opinion, her parents' death was her fault and she would never be able to admit otherwise. But she knew that they wouldn't want her to dwell on their death and instead would want her to keep living her life. She was trying but it was hard. It was hard not receiving an owl from them every other week and knowing that when the summer holiday came, she wouldn't be going back to her childhood home. It crushed her and she wanted to scream. She kept her emotions bottled up inside of her and she knew they were waiting to explode, she just wasn't quite sure when she would be willing to let them go.

Anna had had quite enough of Malfoy ignoring her as well and she was determined to find out why. She knew he went somewhere alone almost every evening, she'd watched him enough to realize that. So she decided she was going to follow him, corner him and demand the answers that she wanted.

"Aren't you coming to dinner?" Ginny asked one night as her friends headed into the Great Hall.

Anna smiled at her and shook her head. "I'm not hungry. I'm going to go to the library and work on the Potions paper due next week."

Ginny was the only person who really understood that Anna didn't like to be around everyone. The looks still seemed to linger and Anna hated that everyone felt sorry for her. Her parents were dead, yes, and it really sucked, but she wasn't weak and she didn't want people to think that she was weak. She would get through it, one way or another. But the looks people gave her, they made her feel so…..small and fragile. And she hated it.

So her cousin just smiled knowingly at her and nodded. "Alright, just promise me you'll be back by curfew."

Anna grinned. "I will. I'll see you tonight, Gin," she said and then the two girls went their separate ways only Anna wasn't heading to the library.

Instead she made her way to the main corridor and waited, knowing that Malfoy would be coming any moment. She made sure she was hidden well behind one of the statues so she could remain unseen by the Slytherin.

It was only a few minutes later that she finally heard footsteps and she immediately knew it was him. He was so light on his feet, so graceful, he almost didn't make a sound when he walked and probably wouldn't if he didn't have those shoes on.

She watched him round the corner and head down the hall in front of her. He was wearing his signature clothing these days – black slacks, shoes and jacket and he strode down the hall with purpose and when he finally turned the next corner, she followed quietly after him.

Anna had always been good at sneaking around and was particularly good at following people and going unnoticed. She and Ginny used to follow Fred and George around all the time when they were kids, wanting to play with them and do whatever they were doing and they usually got away with it. The twins were annoyed at first but they eventually got over it and let the girls help them search for items they needed to conduct their next 'Weasley Experiment' as they called it.

So she had no problem following after Malfoy. He was probably so used to not being followed he didn't think anybody would notice. She followed him up through the different halls, wondering if he was ever going to stop. Just where in Godric's name was he going?

They were on the seventh floor now and Anna got a fleeting idea that maybe he was going to Gryffindor Tower to find her.

Of course, what a stupid idea that was on her part. Why would he all of a sudden want to see her? It's not like he had a sudden change of mind.

It wasn't until they came to the end of the hall that it all seemed too familiar to Anna. She knew exactly where they were and where Malfoy was going, especially when he started to pace back and forth in front of the empty wall. It was just like the DA had done the year before when they needed a place to practice Defense Against the Dark Arts.

The Room of Requirement.

Malfoy was concentrating hard, Anna could see it on his firm features and she watched as the large familiar door suddenly appeared. Malfoy opened it slowly, took one last passive glance over his shoulder and stepped inside.

Anna had to move quickly, she had to get in there before the door closed. She bolted from behind the corner and ran as fast as she could as the door creaked shut and she could feel Malfoy slipping from her fingers. If she didn't get there, this would have all been for nothing.

Her fingers slipped in between the latch of the door, preventing it from closing all the way. She breathed a sigh of relief and quickly slipped inside, letting the door close softly behind her. She only allowed herself to wonder why the door had let her in in the first place for a second before she started her search for Malfoy.

The Room was different than when she would come for the DA. It was dark and cluttered with anything and everything one could imagine and she could barely make her way about without tripping over things that were in her path. There were desks, trunks, wardrobes, cabinets, piles and piles of trinkets and jewels. Broken and tarnished furniture littered the floor and thousands of books were stacked high, some towers almost reaching the ceiling. There was so much stuff inside of it now, unlike the last time she had been inside when it was just an open room with a few bookcases and other bits of furniture lying about.

How was she ever going to find Malfoy?

It didn't matter. He had already found her.