A/N: I do not own anything Harry Potter. I'm glad I got to give you this chapter because I don't know when I'll be able to find time to write again with my finals coming up. I really hope you enjoy this chapter. It's just a bit of fluff after all the craziness that has happened in the last few. Happy reading! XO

Chapter 41

Annie boarded the Hogwarts Express and followed along behind Harry, Ron and Hermione as they traipsed down the corridor looking for an empty compartment. Harry finally found one towards the back of the train and they shuffled in, hoisting their heavy trunks up onto the shelf above the seats. Annie threw herself down on one of the seats and sprawled out on her stomach, one arm used as a head rest and the other swinging against the floor.

"Are you falling asleep already?" Harry asked as he sat down in the seat across from her.

"Nah," she said leaning up on her elbow, "I'm just getting comfortable."

"She'll be gone in fifteen minutes," Ron said picking up Annie's feet and sitting down on the seat next to her.

"Will not," she said letting her feet fall hard on Ron's lap. Ron let out a groan as Harry laughed and Hermione rolled her eyes.

The train engine rumbled and it lurched forward. Harry stood up and waved out the window to Hagrid who was beaming and waving back. Once the train was out of sight of Hogsmeade Station, Harry reached up into his trunk and pulled out a chess set and set it up for him and Ron to play. Hermione sat curled up in her seat with Crookshanks on her lap, reading the Daily Prophet.

"There's nothing in here about Cedric," she said as she scanned the entire paper.

"Wouldn't expect there to be," Annie said sleepily as she picked at a string on the seat.

"You mean Rita hasn't gotten her hands on the story yet?" Harry asked moving one of his pawns forward. "I find that to be a bit odd."

"Well, obviously the Ministry has control over the Prophet now," Annie said turning her head to look over at him.

"You know, come to think of it, I don't remember seeing any articles by Rita in the last couple of days," Ron said looking over at Hermione who turned a slight shad of pink.

"I don't think she'll be writing very much for a while," Hermione said standing up and reaching into her trunk.

Annie turned to face Hermione with a confused look on her face. "What are you going on about, Hermione?"

"This," she answered extracting a jar with a single beetle sitting on leaf inside. "This is Rita."

Harry reached over and took the jar and held it up to his face. "Is it really?" Annie watched his distorted expression through the other side of the glass and raised an eyebrow.

"How?" she asked.

"She's an unregistered animagus," Hermione explained. "She turned into a beetle and just used her form to get her stories. That's how she found out about Hagrid and you collapsing in Divination, Harry."

"Get the hell out of here," Annie said taking the jar from Ron and looking at the beetle. "Oh yeah. I can see the little markings around her eyes that look just like her glasses. Nice find, Hermione." She handed the jar back to her best friend and rested her head back down on the seat.

"So what are you going to do with her when we get back to King's Cross?" Ron said turning back to his chess game.

Hermione stood up and placed the jar back into her trunk and sat back down. "Well, I told her I would let her free if she stopped writing her horrid articles. And if she doesn't, I'll just let it slip to your dads what she really is," she answered proudly with a smug smile on her face.

"Nice," Annie said smiling. "Hey, could you pass me the crossword?"

Before long, Annie had drifted off to sleep right on top of her paper, drool pouring out of her mouth and her quill hanging loosely in her hand. Harry stood up and ruffled her hair as he passed by her on his way to the bathroom. A few minutes later the compartment door slid open and three boys came tumbling in clutching at their stomachs as they laughed. George looked down at his sleeping girlfriend and laughed even harder.

"Typical," he said pushing her hair out of her face. Annie stirred in her sleep and looked up at him sleepily.

"Oh, it's you," she said propping herself on her elbow and reaching out to run her hand through George's hair. "How are you, darling?"

"I'm fine. Your arm is resting in a large puddle, you know," he said smiling at her touch. Annie looked down at her elbow and groaned.

"Excellent," she said as she sat up in the seat and wiped her arm off on her jeans. Harry who had been watching the exchange between his cousin and her boyfriend laughed and shook his head. "Something funny to you, Potter?"

"You've got ink all over your face," he said as Fred and Ron roared with laughter. Hermione looked up from her book and stifled a giggle as her friend pawed at her face making it worse than it already was.

"Damn," she said reaching into her back pocket and producing a small mirror.

George lifted the paper off the seat and set it on the floor and sat down next to his girlfriend. He placed an arm around her shoulder as she worked her wand around the ink, siphoning it off her face and the bit she found on her arm. When she had put her mirror and wand away, she buried her head in George's chest and he kissed the top of her head.

"Much better," he said.

"'Much better'?" Fred asked from his seat next to Harry and Hermione. "It's a slight improvement but not by much." Annie stuck her tongue out and George flung a gum wrapper at his brother.

"Hey, I almost forgot," Ron said speaking up. "Who have you been blackmailing?" Fred and George shared a furtive look.

"You might as well tell them," Annie said yawning, her eyes closed and one hand clutching at George's t-shirt. George wrapped his arm around Annie's shoulders and let his thumb stroke her cheek. "It's not like you're doing anything anymore."

"What do you think, Freddie?" he asked looking over at his twin.

"Might as well," Fred said shrugging his shoulders and looking between Harry, Ron and Hermione. "We were blackmailing Ludo Bagman."

"What?" said Ron and Harry.

"Why?" Hermione asked.

"Remember when we made that bet at the World Cup?" George started to explain. The trio nodded and he continued. "Well, when we won, Ludo paid us in Leprechaun gold-"

"Which disappears after a few hours," Fred picked up. "We thought it was just a mistake so we wrote to him."

"And he never got back to us. So we tried again."

"And again. And then we tried blackmailing him."

Harry and Ron shared a curious glance.

"With what?" Hermione asked setting her book aside.

"Remember when Harry said Ludo tried to help him with the Tournament?" George asked nodding toward Harry.

"Yeah," Harry answered.

"We threatened to tell Dumbledore that he was trying to help you win if he didn't pay us our money," Fred said sitting back in his seat and crossing his arms across his chest.

"And that didn't work?" Ron asked looking between his brothers.

"Tell them what you told me, babe," Annie said patting George lightly on his stomach.

"Thought you were asleep, love," George answered looking down at her and smiling.

"'M not. Just tell them," she answered grumpily.

"Okay," he said readjusting his arm around her. "Ludo apparently has been in debt with several goblins. Tried to pay them off in leprechaun gold as well."

"Really?" Hermione asked.

"Yup," Fred answered. "They've been trying to get him to pay them back for a while. Now he's gone and run off into hiding. Once we found that bit out, we started to lay off."

"And you knew about all of this, Annie?" asked Hermione accusingly. Annie opened her eyes and looked over at her best friend.

"Of course I did," she said reaching out for George's other hand to hold in her own. "As did Lee. There was no chance in hell that I was going to tell anybody though."

"You really should just become a dog full time, Annie. You're majorly loyal to your friends," Harry said bemusedly as Ron laughed.

"Thanks but I think I'll miss Quidditch too much," Annie said as she settled her head back down and reclosed her eyes. "Now if you don't mind, I'm going back to sleep. My head still hurts."

"That's because you spent the entire night drinking. Again! After you promised you wouldn't anymore," Hermione said picking up her book and opening to the page where she left off.

"Hermione, it was the last night of term and there was nothing to do. Plus we had to drink the rest of Fred's stash before he got home and his mum found it," Annie mumbled into George's chest. "It was the only logical thing to do."

Hermione huffed and shook her head as Annie drifted back off to sleep. The boys tried their best to stay quiet while playing several games of Exploding Snap but were told off by a passing prefect who heard Fred swear very loudly as the cards exploded in his face. After the prefect left, Fred turned to look at Annie who hadn't even stirred at the commotion and shrugged and sat back down. The train pulled into Kings Cross station and George shook his girlfriend awake. Her eyes fluttered open and she sat up, stretching her arms above her head and giving off a quiet groan. She gave him a sleepy smile as he helped her to her feet. He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and, after promising he would see her on the platform, left the compartment with Fred to gather up his trunk and other belongings. Annie heaved her own trunk onto the floor and started following Ron out into the corridor. She hopped off the train and immediately found Sirius and standing over with the Potters and the Weasleys.

"Geez, you look like a complete wreck," Sirius said pulling Annie into a hug. "Did you sleep at all last night?"

"Yeah," Annie said after he let her go and she turned to hug Lily and James. "For a few hours anyway. I mainly just slept on the train." Sirius eyed her curiously and Annie looked away.

"Where's Harry?" Lily asked looking toward the train.

"There he is," James answered after he let go of Annie and pointed to his son and the Weasley twins as they stepped off the train. They each made their way over to their parents and gave them hugs.

After a few minutes, Fred excused himself from his family to say goodbye to Angelina and George stole Annie away for his own private moment. He led her by the hand to a secluded part of the platform and pulled her close to his chest as they leaned up against a barrier. Annie wrapped her arms around George's neck and stood on her tip-toes to give him a long, passionate kiss. George's hands found the small of her back and he hugged her tight as he lifted her off her feet. Annie broke the kiss and giggled into his shoulder.

"We're going to see each other this summer, yeah?" Annie asked looking up into his eyes.

George set Annie back down on her feet. He kept one hand around her waist and the other lazily playing with one of her curls that fell down her back. "Of course," he answered leaning down and kissing her nose. Annie gave him a wide smile and let her arms slip around his waist.

"Good," she said giving him a squeeze as he started to lead them back to their parents. "I'd like that."

"Me too."

They rejoined their families and, after one final kiss from George, Annie left with Sirius on the back of his motorbike ready to start the summer.