Chapter 44 - Forced Agreements

Harry stood outside the Minister of Magic's, Franklin William's, office waiting. Ron had been in there for the last half an hour trying to get Harry a job as an Auror without going through all the technicalities and legal matter. Harry realized that being at Hogwarts was not worth his while anymore, he needed to be out in the world stopping the attacks from happening before they started. He only went to Hogwarts the year before to keep an eye on Anna but now he knew she could handle herself she didn't need him anymore. This thought saddened him more than anything. She didn't need him. She had escaped weeks of torture and was still fighting. Yes she might be pushing him and everyone else away but he had done the same thing when he left. He just hoped she could be the parent for her children he wasn't for her.

Suddenly he was brought out of his thoughts by the door next to him opening sharply. He looked toward it and saw a fuming Ron, whose face and ears and neck were all red, exit followed by a flustered looking Minster of Magic. It was obvious the ministers office was sound proofed.

"Harry I am afraid you are going to have to go through the training like everyone else, then take the test. I'm sorry but it's just the way it has to be," Williams said. Harry glared at him.

"Do you know how many times I have faced Voldemort? Do you think dueling with him won't be the hardest thing I will ever have to do?" The moment Harry said it he regretted it the hardest thing he ever had to do was give up on Anna, but Williams didn't need to know that.

"Potter it's not my fault. Its law, the training will sharpen your senses, show you what to look for in a fight," Harry rolled his eyes great another Fudge. Harry glared at him.

"Good news is you can do all the training with Weasley," he added quickly cowering under the look Harry was giving him. "Remember Weasley you should careful we only let you have your old position back because You-know-who is back." He backed into his office before anyone could say anything else.

"Sorry mate but I did try, but that bloody idiot seems to think you aren't a capable enough yet without more training. You faced Voldemort before he could even say the name! How much more bloody training does he think you need!" Ron exclaimed, once they were back inside Ron's rather small office, his ears, however, were still red.

"Ron calm down, don't try too hard and get yourself fired we need you to keep this job. Look if we get started now we can probably finish by Christmas." Harry said.

Ron nodded still fuming. He took a deep breath before carrying on.

"Alright, so we need to get you some field experience not that that will be a problem, so we will start with Stealth and Tracking," Ron said and he and Harry left the office.

The reaction everyone seemed to have toward Anna since she had been back was to avoid her or make fun of her. Most people avoided her but the few people who had made fun of her, mainly Slytherin, had met Lupin, Remus, James or Sirius in a corridor somewhere and hadn't said another word about it. She was thankful beyond words for them.

The two people she had expected to make fun of her or just plain annoy her had not said a word yet. Anna had gone a whole week of school without a confrontation with either Malfoy or Nott. She was thankful for this as she wasn't sure how much they knew and she also wasn't sure she could not hex them into the next century if they did or said anything to her. Fortunately she only had Defense Against the Dark Arts with them so she only saw them during that class.

The second week of school, however, didn't go as smoothly as the first. If you call being woken up at 5 am every night drenched in a cold sweat, smoothly. Anna woke up on Tuesday morning and after breakfast she went to Defense Against the Dark Arts. As she sat down in her usual place near the back she realized she was the only person in the room. She took out her books and started looking through her research books. She didn't look up as she heard other people enter the room. But she did look up when she heard words muttered and a click by the door. She looked up into the cold grey eyes of Cynthia Malfoy and her side-kick Delilah Nott. She couldn't help the hatred that poured into every pore of her body at that moment it was because of those two she was captured in the first place. They may not have know what they were seeing but if they hadn't of made her go to that pool she wouldn't have seen anything and neither would they. She pulled all her self control and put her head back to her book. It made it so much harder when there was no one around. Suddenly she heard them approaching her desk.

"So Potter ey?" came the voice of Cynthia from right in front of her. Anna didn't reply her hands were starting to shake. She wanted her wand.

"You know I heard my dad telling my mum just how much she screamed when he stabbed her with the sword," Cynthia said conversationally to Delilah as though they were discussing the weather.

"Really I bet she screamed at every little thing," Delilah replied.

"I know she did, my dad was there he told me everything," Cynthia continued. "I know every little thing they did to you and how much you cried how much you bleed, and now everyone knows how much it is affecting you."

"Shut up," Anna said through gritted teeth.

"What scared I might tell someone?"

"I said shut up, and if you tell anyone I will kill you with my bare hands," Anna said standing up now, annoyed the table was in between them, she wanted to wipe the smiles of both their faces.

"You don't have it in you to kill anyone, and besides I am not afraid of you. Let's see who should I tell first? Pretty boy Lupin? Or everyone else but him?"

"Malfoy I swear if you tell anyone—"

"You'll do what bleed on me?"

"Didn't you learn anything from the Doxies? Or the fact that Voldemort had me as a prisoner and I escaped? The only person ever to do so besides my father, who if I tell him will do whatever he can to help me."

"We're not scared of him and I'm not scared of you. Now I think we can come to an agreement."

Anna started to say something when she stopped an Agreement?

"What are you talking about?" She snarled.

"Well you don't want anyone to know, and no matter what you do to me if I tell everyone you would have to put a memory charm on the entire school to make them forget."

Anna didn't say anything; she wasn't sure where this was going.

"So we came to the conclusion that if I don't say anything you can do all our homework for the year."

"What! Are you joking? We have one class that is the same. You expect me to agree to this?"

"It won't be that hard we will give you our notes and I'm sure there are books in the library that can help. What do you think? I don't tell, you do our homework, you don't I tell everyone what you went through, what they did to you, everything."

Anna sat again shocked at what had just been said.

"Well?"