Anna drifted in and out of consciousness for the next two days. When she finally and completely woke up, Hermione just about screamed with happiness, and Anna covered her ears. "Not so loud, Mione!"
"Sorry!" Hermione whispered. "I'm just so glad that you've finally woken up, it was touch and go for the first few hours."
"Crabbe and Goyle really did that good of a number on me, huh?"
"Yes, and they aren't even getting expelled for it." Hermione said bitterly. "Just a few lousy detentions."
"What?!" Anna shot straight up, and immediately regretted it.
"No sudden movements." Hermione said sternly as Anna winced and clutched at her side.
"Noted." Anna groaned as Madame Pomfrey came over and made Anna drink a potion that was supposed to help with the pain.
"They could at least make these taste better." Anna complained and Madame Pomfrey gave her a small smile. "I'm afraid that Professor Snape doesn't really take that into consideration when he makes these potions."
"I've noticed." Anna commented dryly as Harry and Ron skidded into the room. "It's about bloody time you woke up." Ron said, and Anna rolled her eyes.
"You need to talk to your brother and Ronald about not doing stupid, dangerous things." Hermione said as she glared at the boys. Anna raised an eyebrow. "What exactly did I miss out on?"
"In our defense, we didn't even know that the Whomping Willow would attack the car." Harry said, and Anna sighed. "Do I even want to know?"
"You probably don't."
"I'll tell you what happened then." Hermione said as she continued to glare at Harry and Ron. "Since they're obviously too scared to tell you themselves. They missed the train, so naturally they decided it would be a good idea to take Mr. Weasley's car and fly to Hogwarts, and of course Muggles spotted them."
Anna groaned as she facepalmed. "Of course they did." Honestly, what had they been thinking? Hermione wasn't done though.
"And once they got here, they decided to land near the Whomping Willow and almost got themselves killed."
"Oh for God's sake..." Anna began to scold the boys, saying that there were numerous other ways that they could have gotten to Hogwarts that wouldn't have gotten them into trouble. She could have given Molly a run for her money. When she finally finished, Anna took a breath to compose herself. "The last thing that I need right now is to be worrying about you two."
"We're sorry." Harry mumbled and Ron silently nodded in agreement, deciding that it would be best to let Harry do the talking. Harry looked down at his feet. "I suppose that we didn't really think things through."
"No you really didn't." Anna folded her arms across her chest. Were boys always this dense or did they mature eventually? Anna sincerely hoped that it was the latter; she didn't know how much longer she could put up with Harry's shenanigans.
Anna was released from the hospital wing two weeks later, but she still had to take it easy, which meant no heavy lifting. Fred declared himself her book carrier, and walked her to each of her classes.
"You don't have to do this." Anna said as he walked with her from Transfiguration.
"Of course I do." Fred answered. "You wouldn't honestly think that I would let you carry these by yourself. Lockhart's books alone must weigh about ten pounds."
"Do we really need all of these? They don't even have valuable information, they just gloat about all of his achievements."
Fred chuckled softly. "Just be glad that you missed the whole pixie incident. I'm glad that I did." Apparently Lockhart had been trying to teach the second years how to handle pixies, and it hadn't exactly gone well. Long story short, he fled the room and made Hermione, Harry, and Ron get all of the pixies back into their cage. This lesson almost went just as badly. While they didn't have to chase pixies around the room, they did have to listen to Lockhart go on and on about all of his experience with werewolves.
"This is almost as boring as History of Magic." Anna whispered to Katie Bell, who nodded. "Please kill me now." Katie begged, and Anna bit back a giggle. "Sorry, but I'm not gonna have myself suffer through this alone. You're as stuck as I am."
Katie stuck her tongue out at her, but quickly withdrew it as Lockhart cleared his throat. "Are you girls perhaps talking about me?" He said, flashing one of his supposedly award-winning smiles. Anna had to think fast. After all, they didn't want to get detention, which, if Anna's suspicions were right, would be just as awful as Lockhart's class. "We were actually." She said, smiling sweetly at Lockhart. "We were just talking about how lucky we are to have such an extraordinary wizard for a teacher, weren't we Katie?"
Katie quickly nodded her head. "Oh yes, we're very fortunate."
Lockhart gave an amused chuckle. "Since you two are such big fans, I'll give you both an autograph after class." He winked at them before turning away, and Anna had to resist the urge to gag. Honestly, how was it that practically all of the girls in school swooned over him? She just didn't get it. Even Hermione was smitten. Anna didn't see how she could be; after all, Lockhart had made Hermione clean up after pixies. Anna was starting to wonder if he even knew anything at all worth teaching.
"Oi, Anna!" Fred came over to Anna at dinner a few nights later. "We have something to ask you." Him and George plopped down on either side of her, and Anna internally groaned. "What do I need to provide you with an alibi for this time?"
"Actually this is the one time that we don't need an alibi for anything." George said.
"Lee Jordan is looking for a co-commentator for the Quidditch games." Fred added. "And naturally we thought that you would be perfect for the job."
"Oh?" Anna raised an eyebrow. "And what makes me so perfect for the role?"
"Well really McGonagall is making him get a co-commentator." George admitted. "She thinks that he can get too cocky and out of line, and he needs someone to keep him in check. Since we didn't want some Slytherin getting the job we volunteered you."
"You volunteered me without even asking me first?" Anna rolled her eyes. "What if I say no?"
"But you aren't going to." Fred answered. "Because we know that you wouldn't be so mean as to have to make Lee deal with some prick for the entirety of the game."
Anna huffed, she hated when those two were right. She knew now that if she said no, she would never stop feeling guilty about it. Besides, being a commentator for Quidditch could turn out to be kind of fun. "Alright, fine." She said, and the twins shared a high five.
"Thanks Anna." Fred said.
"We knew that we could count on you." George added.
"Yeah, yeah." Anna replied. "Now if you don't have anything else to rope me into, mind if I finish my meal?"
"By all means." The twins answered, and they filled up their plates as well.
"Miss Potter!" Lockhart came up to her and she groaned. Would she ever be able to eat in peace? "Hello professor." She said, plastering a smile on her face.
"Miss Potter, I need a volunteer for tomorrow's lesson and I was wondering if you would pitch in and help." Lockhart didn't even give her time to respond. "Splendid, I knew that I could count on you. I'll see you in class tomorrow." He gave her a grin as he went to the teacher's table, and Anna had to resist the urge to bang her head on the table. "Kill me now." She muttered, and Fred laughed. "It probably won't be all that bad, knowing Lockhart. He's probably just going to have you hold up a spider in a jar or something. I wouldn't stress out about it."
"It's Lockhart." Anna responded. "I wouldn't be surprised if he managed to fumble and get me killed. Just think of the headline it would be in the Prophet: 'Hogwarts student dies tragically because DADA Professor had absolutely no idea what he was doing'."
The entire table burst into laughter. Well, except for Hermione that is. "Lockhart is a very excellent wizard." She said in his defense. "He just doesn't have any experience teaching, that's all. I don't think you should be making fun of him like this."
"Hermione, I wouldn't be surprised if he lied about everything in those books of his." Anna said as she bit into a roll. She looked up as Ginny practically wolfed down her food before scurrying back to the dorms. "I wonder what's up with her?"
"She's probably going back to study." Hermione answered. "I heard that Snape is being particularly hard on the first years homework wise this term."
"I'm gonna go see what's up." Anna quickly finished her food before going to Gryffindor Tower, knocking on the door that led to Ginny's dorm. She frowned as she heard rustling, like Ginny was trying to hide something.
"Come in." Came Ginny's hurried voice, and Anna walked in, looking around the room. What had Ginny been doing? "I just came to make sure you were alright." Anna said. "You ate rather quickly at dinner."
Ginny had a bunch of books spread out on her bed. "I just have a lot of stuff to work on." She said dismissively. "Did you have this much homework in your first year?"
"I had more." Anna chuckled as she sat on the edge of Ginny's bed. "Although that may have been because I was a year up in Transfiguration. That was the hardest class for me, there were some days where it was so stressful that I wanted to tear my hair out." She sat on the edge of Ginny's bed. "Ginny...are you sure that everything is alright?"
"Yup!" Ginny chirped, and Anna had a feeling that the cheeriness in her voice was forced, but the youngest Weasley obviously wasn't going to reveal anything to Anna, so she decided not to push it. "Alright, well, I just wanted to make sure that you were doing okay." She walked out of the room, leaving the door slightly ajar. When she was sure that Ginny thought she had left she peered through the crack in the door. Ginny was writing in what appeared to be a diary of some sort. Anna sighed in relief. No wonder why Ginny hadn't wanted her to see. After all, a girl's diary was a very important thing. Anna tiptoed back down the stairs and into the common room. She had probably better get started on homework herself. She hummed as she started to read her Charms book. She started to doze off, but this time when she dreamed, she didn't see Adriana, but something else entirely...
Anna frowned as she gazed around at her surroundings. Adriana was nowhere to be seen, but Anna was still in a very medieval type setting. There were little huts all around; she seemed to be in some type of village. Suddenly soldiers on horses rushed into the village. Anna gasped and looked for somewhere to hide but the soldiers paid no attention; it was like they didn't even see her.
"I never meant for this to happen." Anna jumped before looking at the man who had come to her side. He resembled Dumbledore in many ways. Although he didn't give his name, something told Anna that this was the warlock Merlin. "You blamed Adriana for all of this." Anna murmured. Soldiers dragged people out of the huts, setting the thatched buildings on fire. She watched in horror as men and young boys were slaughtered, while their wives, children, and siblings were forced to watch.
"I never thought that Arthur would find this village." Merlin said, and Anna looked at him in shock. "King Arthur was responsible for all of this? But why?!"
"His father bred in him a hatred for all things magical." Merlin answered. "When I served as Arthur's advisor, he had no idea that I had magic myself in my blood."
"But that still doesn't explain why you framed Adriana. Why not let people know who was actually responsible?"
"Because then the people of Camelot would lose faith in their King. That was my reason...at least, that's the reason I made myself believe it."
Merlin gazed down at her. "I wiped the memories of what had happened from everyone. The survivors, the soldiers, even King Arthur himself. I made them believe what I wanted them to believe. At first I told myself I was doing it for the good of the kingdom. But the real reason was that if people knew the truth they would demand the King's execution." He chuckled, but it had a certain sadness to it. "People will go to great lengths to protect those that they love."
Love...Anna's eyes widened. "You were in love with Arthur...weren't you?"
"I was..." Merlin said with a nod. "Terribly in love. Alas, he loved his queen, and even if he hadn't, we lived in a time where that kind of love would have been forbidden. It wasn't until he was on his deathbed that I revealed this secret to him."
Anna shook her head as she looked around at the carnage. "Because of what you did, Adriana hasn't been able to find peace for hundreds of years "
"I know, and believe me, it caused me great pain to have someone else be punished for Arthur's misdeeds. I did not want to kill her, but in order to keep up the facade I had no choice. Annaliese Potter, the evidence that you are searching for is hidden in a secret chamber in your school. Inside you will find an account written by me of what actually happened that fateful day. Find the chamber, find the account, and Adriana's name will be cleared, and she will at last be able to find peace. When you talk to her again, tell her...tell her that I'm sorry."
"I will." Anna nodded her head as the village and Merlin began to disappear. She knew now what she had to do in order to clear Adriana's name. She would clear it, no matter what it took.