A/N: I do not own anything Harry Potter. What's this? Two chapters in one week? This is madness! Anyway, enjoy the chapter! XO

Chapter 12

Annie walked into the Great Hall with the rest of the students and stopped right inside the door. She removed the hair tie from her hair and shook her long mane of messy curls like a dog, spraying those nearest with rain water much to their dismay. Harry rolled his eyes and walked on. She followed him to the Gryffindor table and sat down between him and George. She looked up at the staff table and watched as Hagrid sidled through the door. She and Harry smiled and waved and he winked back.

"I wonder who the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher is," said Harry his eyes roving the table for a new teacher. "No one up there looks new."

"No idea," she said. "Hey, you think I'll be able to turn Snape's hair pink from here?"

"Really, Annie? Really? There's no sign of a Defense teacher and all you can think about is turning Snape's hair pink?" Harry said looking at her with disbelief.

"You're right, I'll aim for Dumbledore's beard," she said turning to the Entrance Hall door. "Oh look, the First Years. I wish they'd hurry up. I'm starving."

Harry shook his head and followed the line of First Years walking in. "Unbelievable."

"I swear they're getting tinier," whispered Ron and Harry nodded.

As the new students lined up in front of the Great Hall, the Sorting Hat broke into song. Annie barely listened as it sang about the history of the founders and the importance of House unity and opted instead to concentrating on turning Dumbledore's beard pink. As the song finished she flicked her wand and muttered a spell and his magnificent beard turned a vibrant and shocking shade of bright blue. No one noticed, not even Dumbledore himself. Annie shrugged and picked up her fork and started to twirl it between her fingers. Professor McGonagall pulled out a long scroll and read off the names of the new students. One by one the First Years placed the Sorting Hat on their head and were sorted into one of the four houses. After Kevin Whitby was sorted into Hufflepuff, Dumbledore stood up from his chair and the Hall burst into laughter.

"Ah, it seems that Ms. Black has made some updates to my appearance," he said chuckling and winking at her.

"I thought it went well with your robes, sir!" she called out as George slapped her on the back.

"Yes, thank you, but I'm afraid I rather like my beard white," he said changing his beard back to its original color. Dumbledore raised his arms and smiled at everyone around the room. "Tuck in."

Food appeared in front of them and Annie grabbed the nearest dishes and started to pile the food on her plate. She loaded up on roast beef and a mountain of mashed potatoes and began to shovel the lot into her mouth.

"I'm surprised there is even a feast tonight," said Nearly Headless Nick floating over to the table and sitting next to Hermione.

"What do you mean?" asked Hermione.

"Peeves decided to cause quite a ruckus down in the kitchens. The house-elves were quite disheveled," he said.

"House-elves? Here at Hogwarts?" she asked.

"Yeah, Hermione. Didn't you know that there were house-elves here? Who do you think keeps the common rooms clean and makes all of the meals? I thought you knew that," said Annie finally placing her fork down and picking up her goblet. "I've known about this for years since the first time Fred and George took me down to the kitchens back in First Year. Doesn't Hogwarts, A History say something about this?"

Hermione placed her fork down and pushed her plate away. "No, it doesn't say anything about house-elf enslavement. I think I'm finished," she said looking upset.

"Are you going to eat that chicken, Hermione?" asked Ron eying her plate.

"Take it, Ronald," she huffed and crossed her arms across her chest. Ron happily took the chicken off her plate and bit into it as the desserts appeared.

Annie finished her treacle tart and elbowed George in the ribs as he talked to Fred and Lee. He elbowed her back and before they knew it they were shoving each other back and forth. When everyone had their fill of dinner and dessert, the plates cleared and were left sparkling clean. Professor Dumbledore stood up to greet his students and George released Annie from the headlock he had her in and she stopped punching him in the ribs.

"Well, another year has come for you to fill your heads with all the knowledge that Hogwarts has to offer. To our new students, welcome, and to our older students, welcome back.

"We have a very exciting year ahead of us but before we get into that, I have a few announcements-" Professor Dumbledore was cut off when the doors of the Great Hall opened and a bizarre-looking man walked in. Limped was more like it because he had a wooden leg and a roving glass-eye to match. Ron stared open-mouthed at the man as he stumped forward.

"That's Mad-Eye Moody," he said. "Dad went to go help him out this morning."

"What for?" asked Harry watching as Moody shook Dumbledore's hand and taking a seat at the staff table.

"Some kind of disturbance going on at his house. That's why dad wasn't at King's Cross this morning. The man is supposed to as mad as a hatter," Ron explained.

"Wait, Mad-Eye Moody? Wasn't he dad's and Uncle James's boss at the Ministry before he retired?" asked Annie.

"Oh yeah, I thought his name sounded familiar," said Harry.

Dumbledore raised his hands for quiet and the chatter that had broken out when Moody walked in died down. "I would you to welcome your new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Alastor Moody," he said gesturing to Professor Moody who was staring around the room.

"As I was saying before, Mr. Filch would like to remind you that the list of prohibited items is posted on his office door. Also, the Forbidden Forest is, of course, forbidden to all students.

"And now for the most exciting news," said Dumbledore, the whole Hall going quiet and watching him with rapt attention. "This year, Hogwarts will play host to the Triwizard Tournament."

The whole Hall burst into quiet chatter once more. Dumbledore once again waved his hands for silence and continued his announcement.

"Yes, I know this is very exciting. For those of you who don't know, the Triwizard Tournament is an ancient tournament between the top three wizarding schools in Europe: Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang. Three champions, one from each school, will be chosen by an impartial judge on the evening of the Halloween feast. Our guests will be arriving on October 30th," Dumbledore paused and let a couple seconds of excited prattle go on before calling for silence once more. "Now because of the Tournament taking up the entire year, the regular Quidditch season has been cancelled."

"What?" yelled Annie. All heads turned to look at her as she stared at Dumbledore in disbelief.

"Yes, I'm sorry, Ms. Black, I know this is disappointing, but it had to be done. And now that you have heard my announcements, I think it is time you all went to bed. Good night to you all," finished Dumbledore with a nod of head.

The students got up from their chairs and began to talk excitedly about the Tournament. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Anne followed the crowd out of the Great Hall.

"Exciting isn't it?" asked Hermione.

"Exciting? More like awful," said Annie. "Cancelling Quidditch? How could he do something like this? In the words of our former captain, 'You can't cancel Quidditch.'"

Harry laughed and placed and arm around her shoulders. "Oh come on, Annie, ease up. Quidditch is great but this is the Triwizard Tournament. I bet it'll be just as exciting."

They found themselves outside the portrait of the Fat Lady and followed their fellow Gryffindors into the common room. They took their favorite armchairs by the fire as Annie remained standing pacing the floor.

"I mean I understand why he would want to cancel the season, Y\you know with the Tournament and all," she said walking back and forth, Harry, Ron and Hermione watching her amused. "But to cancel Quidditch is just crazy. Just think what Oliver would say. How are we supposed to keep in form for next year, Harry? And Ron, you were going to try out for Keeper this year. You're good and all, but we could all use the practice. How can he do this?" Annie finished her rant and continued pacing the floor. Her friends watched her hoping she would stop soon.

"Will you calm down?" said Ron. "We'll just train hard over the summer and I'll try out for Keeper next year. It's not a big deal."

"Yeah, Annie. We'll have loads of practice time, we promise," said Harry. Harry was always wild about Quidditch but he wasn't as crazy as Annie. She was the real nutter in the family.

"Honestly, I don't really see what the big deal about cancelling Quidditch is," said Hermione.

Annie finally stopped her pacing and turned to Hermione. "The big deal is that if I don't get to play, I'll start to lose my game. If I lose my game, I lose any chance I'll ever have of making it on to any good professional team, let's say the Hollyhead Harpies. If I don't make it on to a Quidditch team I'll end up working at some menial job at the ministry that I don't like. Is that what you want for me, Hermione?" Annie finished throwing her hands in the air and looked desperately between each of her friends for some hint of understanding. Harry sniggered into his hand, Ron snorted with laughter and Hermione shook her head and stood up.

"I give up," she said walking to her friend and grabbing her shoulders. "You are too crazy and I'll never be able to understand your Quidditch-obsessed mind. Now if you don't mind, I'm going to bed. I'll see you tomorrow." Hermione hugged Annie and left up the staircase to the girl's dormitories. Harry and Ron stood up as well and made their way to the boy's dormitories.

"Annie, just get some sleep. Maybe you won't feel this way in the morning," said Harry following Ron up the stairs. "Goodnight."

Annie sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "Yeah, maybe." She went upstairs and climbed into her bed. She stared at the ceiling lost in her thoughts about Quidditch and fell asleep.

A/N: Love the reviews so keep 'em coming! Please check out my one-shot if you haven't already called Boggarts. And a very special thank you to Blue Luver5000 for the suggestion of turning hair pink (well, in this case blue).