It was a few days later and Anna had fully recovered from the snake incident. She was walking with Hermione to class when Draco roughly bumped into Hermione, making her books spill everywhere. "Watch it, Mudblood!" Draco snapped.
"You better watch it yourself Malfoy!" Anna retorted. She had had just about enough of the blonde tormenting her and her friends. It was one thing when she was the one being bullied, but a completely different thing when it was her friends being bullied and called names.
"What are you gonna do about it Potter?" Draco said with a laugh. "Gonna run away screaming?" He mimicked her voice. "No, Harry don't hurt me!" The little group of Slytherins that he was with started to laugh. She pointed her wand at him. "Wingardium Leviosa!" Draco started to screech as he started flying in the air. "Get me down!" Crabbe and Goyle tried to tug him to the ground but Anna just made him float above their reach. She brought him outside to the courtyard, making him fly higher and higher up into the sky. "What's the matter Malfoy? I didn't know that you were scared of heights."
"Put me down!" He shrieked, and Anna pretended to think about it.
"Nah, I think I'll leave you up there. It's better, down here is much more quiet without you, wouldn't you agree Mione?"
"Put him down Anna!" Hermione urged her. "You're going to get into trouble!"
"Just what exactly is going on here?!" McGonagall strode outside with Professor Dumbledore. "Miss Potter, release Mr. Malfoy at once!"
"But he called Hermione a Mudblood!" Anna objected.
"Be that as it may, we cannot have you floating students all over the school!"
Anna went to object again, but one look at McGonagall and she decided that it would be wisest to keep her mouth shut for the time being.
Dumbledore stared up at the still floating Malfoy. "Interesting." He mused. "I don't recall a second year being able to levitate a human before. Twenty points to Gryffindor."
Anna bit back a grin as McGonagall stared at Dumbledore in shock. "Albus, certainly you are not rewarding this kind of behavior!"
"I am not rewarding her behavior, simply her abilities." Dumbledore responded, a twinkle in his eyes. "Now, Miss Potter. If you would be so kind as to let Mr. Malfoy down."
Anna did so, but she definitely didn't do it gently. Draco hit the ground face first and when he stood, his entire front was covered in dirt and mud.
"You're going to pay for that Potter!" He threatened before running off, Crabbe and Goyle right behind him.
"You shouldn't have done that." Hermione scolded as they walked inside. "You're lucky that McGonagall only gave you one detention."
"I wasn't going to just let him get away with it Mione." Anna said as they walked to the Herbology greenhouse. "He can't continue to get away with stuff like that. If he does then it'll only get worse." She smirked as she walked into the greenhouse and Draco flinched back when he saw her. That day they learned about Mandrakes. Professor Sprout warned that they had to wear earmuffs, otherwise the scream would knock them unconcious. Anna quickly put on her earmuffs. She had been placed in the hospital enough, and she would rather not go back. She and Hermione helped each other pot their Mandrakes. Even with their earmuffs on the Mandrakes screams were almost ear-piercing. Anna sighed and shook her head as Neville fainted. Honestly, sometimes she felt so bad for that boy.
"Miss Potter." Professor Sprout motioned for her to help her get Neville to the hospital wing. After making sure that Neville was in the caring hands of Madame Pomfrey, Professor Sprout dismissed Anna. "Class is almost over anyway."
"Thank you Professor." Anna said, grinning as she left the hospital wing. She had ten minutes before the other classes ended; ten glorious minutes all to herself. Or so she had thought anyways. Fred came running down the hall, nearly running her over.
"Fred, what's going-" She yelped as Fred grabbed her hand, dragging her down the hallway. "Filch is right on my tail! Trust me, you don't want to be here when he comes!"
Anna had to run as fast as she could to keep up with his long strides.
"In here!" Fred pulled her into a broom closet. He shut the door and whispered, "Colloportus," causing the door to lock. "We should be safe here." He whispered as he looked down at her. It was dark, and the closet was cramped so they were very close to each other. Anna blushed darkly, and was glad that he couldn't see it.
"Listen, there's something-" He started to say, but he quieted when he heard footsteps outside the door. "Where are they pet?" Anna held her breath as she heard Filch outside the door. The doorknob jiggled, but once Filch saw that it was locked he moved on. Anna let out a sigh of relief. "That was close." She said. "What are you even doing out of class anyways?"
"I could ask you the same thing." Fred retorted, and Anna rolled her eyes. "Neville fainted while we were potting Mandrakes. I was helping Professor Sprout get him to the hospital wing and she dismissed me for the rest of class time. You still didn't answer my question."
"If you must know, George and I pulled a brilliant prank on Filch. We had to run seperate ways so that we didn't get caught. I don't know where he went."
An awkward silence fell after that, and Anna cleared her throat. "We should probably get going before Filch comes back."
Fred nodded slowly and he whispered, "Alohomora."
Once the door was unlocked Anna stepped out, grateful to not be in that cramped closet anymore. They had been almost intimately close in there. She noticed how Fred's face was a bit red too, and her thoughts wandered to what George had told her. What if it wasn't a trick? What if Fred really did like her? He had been about to tell her something when Filch came, what if that had been what he wanted to tell her?
"Um, I should go." Fred said nervously, and Anna watched as he walked away.
"Anna!" Harry, Hermione and Ron ran up to her. "There you are, we've been looking all over." Harry said, and he frowned slightly. "You okay? You're looking a little red."
"Maybe she's coming down with something." Ron suggested.
"I'm fine." Anna said as she shook her head.
"Come on, let's go and grab some food, I'm starving." Ron said as his stomach started to growl.
"I'll catch up with you guys." Anna said and Hermione gave her a weird look. "Don't worry, I'm okay, I'm just gonna walk around a little bit, I've just got some things to think about."
Hermione was about to say that she would go with Anna, but Harry and Ron dragged her away. "Leave her." Harry mumbled to Hermione. "She'll talk to us about it when she's ready."
The halls were deserted now that everyone was in the Great Hall eating dinner. Anna shoved her hands into her robe pockets as she walked. She had told herself that she wasn't ready for any kind of relationship yet, so why whenever she thought of her and Fred together did it bring a smile to her face? She shook her head. Even if she did like him, it was doubtful he would like her back, even though George claimed otherwise. There were dozens of other girls. Katie Bell for instance, or Angelina Johnson. She didn't stand a chance. She wished that her mother were here so that she could talk to her about it. As much as she loved Mrs. Granger, there were times when she wanted her actual mother. She sighed softly as she sat down, leaning her head back against the cold stone wall, closing her eyes.
"Anna?"
Anna peeked one eye open to see Cedric coming down the hallway. "Ced, what are you doing here? I'm surprised that you aren't at dinner."
"Hermione came up to me, she told me that she was worried about you." Cedric said as he sat next to her.
Anna sighed softly. "She worries too much. I just needed to talk a walk, clear my mind a little bit."
"What you thinking about?"
"Just stuff..."
Cedric smirked a little bit. "What's his name?"
Anna tried to fight back the blush that rose to her cheeks. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Oh come on Anna, we're friends, you can tell me. It's obviously a guy that you're thinking about."
"I wouldn't even tell my own brother. What makes you think that I would tell you?"
"Maybe because I'm better than your brother." Cedric said cockily, and Anna raised an eyebrow. "Are you now? Because I seem to recall in one of the Quidditch matches Harry beat you to the Golden Snitch."
"It was one time!"
"Sometimes once is enough." Anna giggled as she stood up. "Cedric, I'm fine, really. If I need to talk to someone, I'll come to you, alright?"
Cedric sighed as he stood as well, accepting the fact that she wasn't going to tell him. "You're no fun Potter."
"No, I'm just very mysterious." Anna waved as she continued to walk down the hall. She hummed to herself, pausing when she thought she heard a voice. "Hello?" There was the sound of footsteps scurrying away, and Anna ran after them. She stopped when she saw spiders all over the floor. "What the hell?" She murmured and she slowly began to follow them. They were single file, almost like little soldiers all in a row. They led her out into a main hallway, and she gasped at what she saw.