Chapter Eleven: A Life Changed

Since the second task Anna had become a completely different person. She refused to come to classes and instead lay on her bed curled up in a ball. She wouldn't talk to anyone and Professor McGonagall couldn't even put the fear on her anymore. Anna was completely emotionless to the outside world. All her emotion was hidden beneath a huge bundle of disgrace and humility for what had happened on the second task. The sight of all her blood over the floor and the feel of spitting it up tortured her. The news Emily had given her when she had been stable enough to hear it had unstabilized her entire world. She was a mess and she wasn't about to let anything mess up anyone.

She didn't make a sound for weeks. She didn't eat, or drink. Emily brought her homework but it just sat there during the day. Sometimes at night a light could be seen and Anna would do some homework to send to Ron or Professor McGonagall the next day. It didn't happen often but the homework build up lasted a week then got finished in time for Anna to do the next build up of homework. She wasn't coming to class but she was getting the work done and done on an average level so the Professors were content with that. At least she was still learning Professor McGonagall had said.

Her behaviour was actually kind of an annoyance to the students though. Each night another Hogwarts girl would sit next to Anna's bed and try to get some kind of reaction from her. Even Francie tried taunting her but got nothing. Not even a smirk. It came to a point where the Hogwarts boys were attempting to get a reaction from her. None of them did though. Gaston was getting pretty upset with Anna lately. He hated this turn in her life and was trying as hard as he could to make things better. But blaming himself wasn't the answer Emily kept telling him. After an attempt from all the Hogwarts students, the Durmstrang boys started coming in. But that had no affect on Anna either. The randomly, girls from Beauxbatons started coming to see her. But still she didn't change her out look on life. Emily was really starting to get worried about Anna and badly wanted to tell Ron what was going on.

"Anna" Emily whispered. "I think you need to talk to Professor Weasley…he should know what happened Anna. You see, the thing is I'm really worried about you sweetie"

Emily was starting to cry.

"I-I think you need help. Madame Winfield said I needed to be strong for you Anna, but I'm so sick of being strong for you!" Emily shouted at her friend. "I'm going to tell him unless you give me some kind of sign that you're coming out of this state of whatever it is!"

Emily waiting catching her breath. Anna never made any notion of her being there.

"Anna!" Emily yelled. "Anne Rose wake up! You can't live like this!"

Gaston heard yelling coming from the girls' dormitory and ran in. Emily was red faced and screaming at Anna who just lied there. He pulled Emily out of the room and hugged her.

"Emily, it's all right"

Emily pushed him away. "No it's not Gaston! Look at her! She's wasting away!"

"Emily, please" Gaston took a breath.

He brushed the hair away from Emily's face and let her stew.

"I can't stand it anymore Gaston" Emily started crying. "She's not herself…I'm worried about her"

"I know…this is worse then when Corinne passed out in class"

"This is Anna Gaston, Anna isn't like this"

"I know…you know what's wrong Emily so why don't you tell someone?"

"Because I promised"

"That's understandable but Emily if it'll make things better…"

"It won't" Emily sighed. "It'll make things worse"

Emily took a deep breath. "I'm all right now Gaston…thank you"

He smiled and kissed her forehead. "You're welcome…patience Emily"

Emily faked a smile and went back in the girls' dormitory. She sat beside Anna's bed and stared at her.

"I'm sorry Anna. I don't know what got over me" Emily stroked Anna's hair. "I'm just losing my patience and I know it hurts you. I don't understand what you're feeling but I want to help. I want you to open up to me"

Anna sighed. It was the most response anyone had gotten in a month.

"I really think you need to talk to him" Emily continued since she knew Anna was listening. "But it's your decision sweetie"

Ron walked the edge of the lake with Harry who had flown there as soon as possible when Ron had asked him to come. For the most part they walked in silence making small comments about little things until Ron was ready to tell him what had happened.

"It was all over the papers what happened at the last task" Harry started a conversation. "Is Anna all right?"

Ron sighed. "That's the thing Harry…she isn't fine"

"What do you mean?" Harry asked.

"I think something deep happened in there to her. I'm not just talking about her almost dying. I think there was something emotion attached to whatever went on"

"I'm not really following you"

"I'm not very good at this sort of thing" Ron stated. "That was Hermoine's job…to figure out what we're trying to say"

Harry sighed. "I miss her"

"I sent her a letter asking if she'd come"

"And?"

"I haven't heard anything. We could really use her right now"

"I agree"

Harry and Ron turned around. Hermoine stood with a broom in hand and a smile. She hugged both her boys and then got serious.

"So what's going on?"

"Ron's got issues" Harry stated. "I can't understand him"

Hermoine linked her arms with Ron and Harry.

"This is just like in our years of high school" Hermoine stated. "I hope things aren't awkward between us Ron"

"Not right now, maybe once I get this problem off my chest"

"So Ron says that he thinks there's something more behind what happened with Anna during the second task of the Triwizard Tournament" Harry stated.

Hermoine looked lost. "What happened?"

"Jeez…Hermoine, don't you read the daily prophet?" Ron asked.

"Nope, we don't get it in the mountains. The giants can't read"

"Oh…well anyway, Anna Rose Wilder is our Hogwarts Champion and the second task involved them all facing their fears and well hers is spiders…coincidence eh?"

Hermoine laughed. "Just a little"

"Go on" Harry urged.

"So she goes in completely terrified there's blood everywhere, she almost dies and then performs the killing curse which she hasn't even learnt yet in Defense Against the Dark Arts. Then her buddy Gaston, he's sitting over there looking gloomy" Ron indicated. "He comes out carried her covered in blood and unconscious and he's covered in blood. It's a really gruesome sight"

"Ok" Hermoine started. "Now that the gruesome part is out of the way I understand more of the emotional part Harry mentioned. Ron, is it possible that there is something more to Anna's fear than just spiders?"

Ron shook his head. "I don't know"

"Does Gaston know?" Hermoine started walking over to the gloomy student.

Ron and Harry followed. Hermoine sat down next to him.

"Hi, I'm Hermoine Granger, Professor Weasley's best friend, well one of them, what can you tell me about Anna?"

Gaston stared at her. "I don't know, if you want something about the last task I'm the wrong person, you're better off trying to pry Hagrid away from dragons because Emily won't crack"

Hermoine nodded. "Ron, can I see Anna?"

"I guess so…"Ron said slowly.

Hermoine, Ron and Harry left Gaston. They walked to the train and Hermoine stopped. She looked back and fourth between Harry and Ron.

"There's something different about you Ron" she stated.

"Besides I'm miserable right now?"

"You've got the after glow of sex fading around you" Hermoine went into the train.

She knocked on the door of the girls' dormitory. Emily answered.

"Hi, I'm Hermoine Granger, I'd like to talk to Anna"

"Good luck" Emily sighed. "We all would like to talk to Anna"

"Could I have a moment alone with her though?"

"Sure…come on Francie" Emily dragged the Slytherin girl out of the room.

Hermoine sat on the floor next to the girl.

"Hello Anna" Hermoine said quietly. "We haven't met but I know your secret"

Anna's eyes looked at her.

"You're probably wondering how I know right? Especially since nobody else has figured it out. It's because nobody else knows what it's like to be loved by a Weasley. It's amazing isn't Anna?"

Anna slowly nodded.

"I know things are hard right now but you can't just lie here and let life pass you by. There's so much out there for you and if Ron's not willing to put out then you should just drop him and move on" Hermoine waited. "This has nothing to do with him does it? Well, it does but he has no clue what happened does he and you don't plan on telling him do you?"

Anna shook her head.

"I'm smart Anna, a lot smarter then the other people here. I can tell when something isn't going right. I was always able to tell when Ron makes huge mistakes. And I'll have to say not using protection, especially with someone so young is the worst mistake he's ever made. He's made some bad ones too…but they've never caused anyone to die. However, Anna, the thing is, is it alive when it's born? Or is it when it's a fetus, or a zygote? What do you think?"

Hermoine stood and held out her hand. "Take my hand Anna and together we'll tell Ron what happened. If you're not going to tell him I will…no, all right then. Take care of yourself Anna, I'll go talk to Ron"

Hermoine left the girls' dormitory and smiled at Emily. "I managed to get some nods"

Emily hugged her. "Thank you"

"Go see her…I need to talk to Ron about this little problem"

"Umm…Miss. Granger" Emily said.

"Don't worry, Anna won't be mad at you. You haven't broken your promise"

Emily went back inside while Ron stood with Harry waiting for Hermoine to tell them.

"Let's walk" Hermoine said. "This will need a lot of pacing"

They walked back to the water's edge where everything was silent. Hermoine was waiting for the right moment to tell them. Harry was just waiting to listen and Ron was getting impatient.

"Hermoine, just tell me"

"Ron, before anything is said you have to do something"

"What tell me what happened?"

"What do you mean what happened?"

Hermoine stopped and looked at him with disbelief. "Ron, you slept with a student!"

Harry gasped.

"I know that much Hermoine"

"What made you lose that control you had?" Harry asked.

"What does it matter right now?" Ron asked looking back and forth between his friends.

"Ron, she's a seventeen year old girl who lost her virginity to her Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor"

"I know" Ron stated.

"Wait till I tell Ginny" Harry laughed.

"Harry! You're not helping situations" Hermoine snapped.

"I'm sorry"

"It's all right…Ron, Anna was terrified in there but not completely of the spider"

Ron looked confused.

"She was afraid for her life and…"

"And what?" Harry urged her.

"And…the—

"Hermoine!" Anna interrupted them. "I should tell him"

Hermoine smiled down at her. "You're absolutely right. Come on Harry, Ron doesn't need us around to hear all this"

"But I want to know what's going on"

"I'll tell you later Harry" Ron assured him.

Harry and Hermoine walked off to make a visit with Professor McGonagall. Ron looked back at Anna.

"So you've decided to leave you bed" he tried to lighten the mood.

"It was difficult, it was so warm" Anna helped him out. "This is weird"

Ron nodded. "Weirder than the time at the restaurant"

"Weirder than every time since we…"

"Yea"

They stood in silence. They were both trying to figure out what to say but nothing was coming that seemed right. Anna wanted to yell and scream and then after all the yelling and screaming was done she wanted to rip his clothes off and make love to him again. Ron wanted to explode all his anger on her for making him completely worried and almost dying on him. Then he wanted to take her where she stood. Neither of them said anything.

"I don't know what to tell you" Ron said.

Anna took a deep breath. "I was pregnant and I lost my baby…our baby"

She had said it so quickly he could barely understand what she was saying.

"What?" Ron questioned her.

"Hermoine said you made a lot of mistakes but you should have realized we needed protection against this Professor"

"Anna, hold on a minute…you were pregnant?"

"Yes"

"You lost the baby?"

"Yes"

"I'm an idiot for not using protection?"

"Yes"

"Wow, this is a lot to be thrown on someone"

"A lot to be thrown on someone?" Anna questioned him angrily. "You think this is a lot to be thrown on someone? Try being the person pregnant! Try being the one who almost died along with the baby! Try being the person who had to hide it from everyone and especially from the only person who matter! Or imagine being Emily who had to sit there and watch me suffer through everything and you didn't have a clue! Did you even consider it when you fucked me?"

Anna slapped Ron across the face and took off.

Ron was stunned. All in three months time he had slept with a student, gotten her pregnant, lost the baby to his worst fear and gotten slapped in the face but a seventeen year old girl. This was all too much to take in. He took a moment to adjust himself then he started looking for Anna. A lot of the students and teachers watched him curiously and began the search themselves. They spent a good two hours looking for Anna. IT was weird for her to be missing. They always knew where she was. She was always in her bed curled up ignoring the world. But now she was somewhere and no one knew where. Students were slowly being sent to bed by ten o'clock and just the teachers were still left searching. Ron passed through the little layer of trees again for the fifth time that night. This time he listened closely and looked up and down and everywhere.

"There are worse things I could do, than go with a boy or two. Even though the neighborhood thinks I'm trashy and no good I suppose it could be true, but there are worse things I could do. I could flirt with all the guys, smile at them and bat my eyes. Press against them when we dance, make them think they stand a chance and then refuse to see it through, that's the thing I'd never do. I can stay home every night. Wait around for Mr. Right. Take cold showers everyday and throw my life away, on a dream that won't come true. I could hurt someone like me, out of spite or jealousy. I don't steal and I don't lie, but I can feel and I cry. A fact I'll bet you never knew, but to cry in front of you that's the worse thing I could do"

Ron listened to the sweet sounds of a female voice coming from above him. He looked up and found Anna sitting on a tree branch. He started climbing the tree quietly not wanting to ruin the song. He could tell she was in tears and it hurt him badly. He sat on the branch opposite her and waited. She looked over at him in surprise but it passed quickly.

"Go away Professor"

"Anna, everyone is worried about you" Ron said.

"That's nice"

"Please come down" he requested.

Anna took out her wand and pointed it at him. "Listen to me Professor Weasley, you've really pissed me off tonight and I don't want to see you. Just leave me alone! Accio broom!" Anna shouted.

A broomstick flew towards the trees and she jumped onto it. Ron fell out of the tree and watched her fly through air back towards Hogwarts. Professor Andrew ran over to help Ron off the ground. Ron brushed himself off and looked around.

"What do we do now?"