Anna would see Newt in classes but he barely acknowledged her presence, despite the two of them supposedly dating, she wondered what was going on, but figured it best to keep to herself. You'd even gone home for the holidays and Newt had invited Leta to his place for Christmas as she had no place else to go so your plans had gone out the window.

"Ah, Anna, just who I was wanting to see." Since the incident just before Christmas she'd been working with Dumbledore on ways to defend herself.

"Today we'll work on—"

"Professor?"

"Yes, Anna?" the brunette looked hesitant, her green and brown eyes cast to the floor.

"Why are you helping me? You haven't got any obligation to do so."

"I guess you could say…I route for the underdogs, Miss Carrio. I see great potential in you, and you want to be prepared for next year if you put your name in to represent us, don't you?" she looked up startled.

"How did you—?"

"You should try talking to the portraits sometime, they'll tell you a lot." There was a twinkle in his eyes, she could feel a smile tug at her lips.

"Eyes everywhere, Anna. Nothing goes on in this castle that the headmaster and staff don't know about, that includes student affairs." She looked about in wonder.

"you may learn some history from the portraits as well, that could come in handy. Now, repeat after me, Everte statum"

"Everte…statum?" Dumbledore merely smiled "That was good, but now try with your wand, and aim at that chair." He placed a hand on her shoulder and turned her towards the object before stepping back.

"Focus Anna" she nodded, loosening the grip on her wand a bit and clearing her head before snapping her wrist, "Everte statum!" the chair shot backwards and broke apart, connecting with the stone wall of the classroom.

"Wonderful!" he made quick work of repairing the broken chair, putting it back into position.

"Once more, your wand work was a bit sloppy, make sure you're flicking your wrist, not snapping it." She nodded, shifting her stance a bit and taking his words to heart as she cast the spell again, blasting the chair to pieces as it flew back once more.

"Spectacular, well done, Anna!" she'd never admit it, but she was picturing Leta's face the second time.

"No, we're going to try a smokescreen spell, I'm sure you've seen it cast before, it's called Fumos."

Spring was fast approaching and Anna was on her way to her private lessons when a sudden hand on her shoulder caused her to panic, she turned, wand at the ready.

"Whoa, Anna, it's me!" her heart continued to race as she came face to face with newt.
"Oh…it's just you." Saying the girl was cross with him would be an understatement.

"What do you want, Newton?"

"You're angry, why are you angry?" she continued walking as he matched his pace to hers.

"Oh, I don't know, the fact you've ignored me for the better part of two months and now you've decided to talk to me? The fact you spend every waking moment with Leta Lestrange, I thought when you'd asked me out, you'd be spending time with me, but since she's come along it's like you only see her." Newt was flummoxed, he'd never heard her sound so angry, not even when that Niffler crawled through her robes during Care of Magical Creatures class.

"You're upset over Leta?" she had every right to be, being a couple, at least in her experience, meant doing things together, not being forgotten so your supposed boyfriend could go gallivanting off with other girls.

"Yes, Newton, I'm upset about Leta, you've been a terrible boyfriend and an even worse friend, the both of you, actually. Where were you both when Esme Pettly was attacking me, were you snogging in the library?" hurt was clear on the boys face.

"Well, what about you? You've been less than accommodating to Leta."

"Less than…Less than Accommodating, Newt, what would have me do. I defend her against kids who could easily kill me should they so please, there's hundreds of ways to go about it here, death in the forbidden forest, they could leave me to the centaurs, or any number of other creatures, or perhaps you'd forgotten about the attempted drowning last year, they could even hang my body from the quidditch posts, TAKE YOUR PICK, NEWTON!"

"You're overreacting, Anna."

"No, Newt, If I were overreacting would Dumbledore be giving me defensive spell lessons during free period when he could be doing half a million other things?!" the reddish haired Hufflepuff was stunned.

"Why would you…Why would you need special defense lessons?"

"Because the second you and Leta ditched me, the less than friendly pure-bloods had to have someone to torment, didn't they, and who better than the lowly muggle-born Hufflepuff?!" He watched as her hair turned a violent shade of red, she knew she was wasting her time explaining things to him.

"You know, why am I even telling you this, you don't care, she doesn't care, I hope the two of you are happy together, Newton."

"Anna, Had I known they'd attacked you…"

"Save it, Newt. Have a nice life." He reached out to grab her robe as she walked away but pulled his hand back at the last second, the severity of the situation sank in.

"Newton Artemis Fido Scamander, you really buggered this one up." He muttered to himself as she walked away from him.

He'd tried on multiple occasions to get her to talk to him in the security of the Hufflepuff dorms but she'd always find a way to avoid him, word must have gotten around about his poor treatment of her.

"Anna, please talk to me" he'd taken notice that she hadn't left the dorms to go to class.
"Go away!"

"I'm not leaving until you talk to me!" his stubbornness was his worst trait, but he hoped it won out in this argument.

"And I'm not talking to you until you go away!"

"That's not…Anna open this door or I will." He was getting irritated

"If you open this door I'll cast the caterwauling charm."

"You wouldn't dare."

"Try me, Newton." Her tone was in fact, one of challenge and he'd had enough.

"If you don't come out here and talk to me I guess I'll just go to Dumbledore and—" the door swung up and suddenly he was met with a fist in his face.

"You….You…total…Asshole!" he stared up at her, how was it possible for her to hit so hard? "We were supposed to be dating, you asked me out, remember, or was your head so far up Leta's Arse that you'd forgotten? You haven't said a word to me in months!" her hair was that same shade of almost blood red, but there was something different, a small hint of blue in her bangs, he actually caused her pain.

"I'm sorry…"

"Sorry! that's all you have to say?!" Her eyes were stormy.

"Yes."

"Good bye, Newton." She walked past her now ex-boyfriend and headed for the portrait hole.

"Anna. Anna Wait." She ignored him as he scrambled after her, slamming the portrait behind her and sprinting off up the stairs.

It was nearing the end of the school year and her lessons with Dumbledore were ending.

"Thank you so much for all your help this year, Professor."

"Please, no thanks necessary, Anna. And now you have a leg up for next year." He winked playfully, she'd come to see the soon to be defense against the dark arts professor as a parental figure. She just shook her head at his antics.

"Oh, before you go, there's someone here to see you. Come on in, Newt." Her smile faded as her ex-friend stepped out of the back office.

"You!" Newts eyes widened, her face was one of pure betrayal, "Anna, you two need to talk this out."

"There's nothing to talk about, Professor."

"Anna, please." She could hear the desperation in his voice and see it in his eyes.

"I'm sorry about Leta."

"It's always about Leta, Newt…I can't…I defended her, against her own house no less, and now she's…" he caught the mix of emotions stirring in her eyes. The dark-skinned girl had been kind of clingy since the day in the come-and-go room, yet it didn't click until now.

"Anna, I'm truly sorry. I didn't know how you were feeling, it was just nice having another person to talk to, it's always just been the two of us."

"Well, lately it's just been the two of you, Newt…I went back to being alone, you even stood me up at Christmas to be with her…" she had him there, but in his mind, he was being kind, helping out a friend. he hadn't even thought about her feelings.

The reddish haired boy stepped towards her as a few tears rolled down her fair cheeks, her hair was fading to blue, She made no attempts to move as he pulled her in for a hug, Anna made no attempts to hug him back, instead she just let the sobs wrack her body, her tears soaking his house jumper, Newt made no protests.

"You're right, I've been terrible to you." He pulled her back, holding her at arm's length, "How about, to make up for Christmas, I come spend time with you this summer, I can travel through the floo network."

"The what?" she looked up with red, puffy eyes. "The floo network, it's faster than the knight bus."

"The knight…what?" she had no knowledge of magical transport.

"You…they didn't teach you about the magical transportation?" She shook her head, obviously out of the loop.

"Well the floo network is basically traveling through a fireplace and the Knight bus is for stranded witches or wizards." She nodded, letting him believe she was stupid enough not to know what either thing was, she'd used the floo network to travel to Diagon Alley her first year, her parents had completely freaked out at the idea of being engulfed by magical fire.

"So you mean to tell me, that all this time, I could have traveled through the fire place?" she pretended to sniffle.

"Yeah, basically." Dumbledore quirked a brow at her play at stupidity, wondering how long she's let him think she was that uneducated, but also if he'd be a terrible instructor for magicking in some popcorn. Anna Carrio would have been a superb fit for Gryffindor house, he'd noticed her small affinity for mischief, but Hufflepuff had been the best fit, the hat was never wrong.

"Well, are you two going to make up, because we have a lesson to see to, Anna."

"O-Oh, right! Sorry professor." She looked sheepish.

"I'll see you in the great hall for dinner, Newt, we can talk more then." A smile broke out on the boy's face "Oh, and Newt?" he turned about to open the door.

"I suggest you practice your defensive spells or I'm going to wipe the floor with you in classes next year. And Newt, don't forget your promise."

"My promise?"

"That if I put my name in, so would you." The grin was back, "You're on, Carrio. Maybe you can teach me a few things this summer." With that he was gone.

"So, onto our lesson, Anna. Today's spell will be Repello inimicum."

It was finally time to travel home and she spotted Newt and Leta both on the train platform.

"Oh, Anna!" she put on a fake smile as Leta addressed her, "Sorry about taking up so much of Newts time, it's just nice to have someone to finally talk to."

"Yes, well. He's a very good listener." She noticed Leta's arm draped around Newts who looked uncomfortable.

"Leta, please let go of my arm." The dark-skinned Slytherin hesitated but did as he asked, giving Anna an almost sickeningly sweet smile.

"So, I've heard you were getting advanced lessons from Professor Dumbledore, what's he been teaching you?"

"Defensive spells, mostly. A few offensive spells as well, he wants me to help with demonstrations for next years dueling club."

"Anna, that's wonderful news!" Newt brought his hand up, ruffling her hair.

"I'll make sure to sign up, hopefully you'll be a good teacher." Leta was going to sign up for Dueling club? Fourth year was going to be an interesting year. "And I'll be there as well." Newt assured, she smiled.

"All right, onto the train, both of you, we've got a long trip back to King's cross."

And so another year came to an end, none of them knew the tribulations they would face next year.