A/N: I do not own anything Harry Potter. I apologize for the super long wait for this chapter. I was really busy with all of my schoolwork and then my finals. But now that's all done, I have more time to write. Thank you to those who have added me to their Alerts/Favorites. I hope you enjoy this chapter. Happy reading! XO

Chapter 46

"Has anybody seen Annie?" Hermione asked coming into the kitchen with Ginny following behind her. "We woke up and neither she nor Bandit were in the room."

"She's asleep in my room," Sirius answered from behind his Daily Prophet. "She'll be down later."

"You mean she's not helping us clean this place?" Ron asked sitting down and taking some of the toast in front of him.

"She will when she wakes up," replied Sirius picking up his coffee. "She didn't sleep well last night."

"Alright hurry up, you lot," Mrs. Weasley said briskly. "The sooner we start cleaning, the sooner it gets done."

The kids finished their toast and followed Mrs. Weasley and Lily up to the drawing room. After finishing his newspaper, Sirius joined them with a few trash bags in his hand. He walked over to one of the cupboards and started tossing things out as everyone sprayed the doxys. About an hour later, Mrs. Weasley collapsed in one of the armchairs wiping her brow with a handkerchief as Lily went around and collected the spray bottles and buckets before leaving to make lunch. As Sirius followed her out of the room, he stopped in the doorway of another room and looked in to find Annie inspecting the tapestry hanging on the wall.

"I was about to go wake you up," he said making her jump a foot in the air.

"Jeez, dad, don't scare me like that," Annie said a little breathless. "Is this the family?"

Sirius placed the bag he was holding on the floor and walked over to where Annie was standing.

"In all their nastiness," he answered. He pointed at two blackened pictures at the bottom of the tapestry. "That's us right there."

Annie leaned forward and pushed her messy hair out of her eyes. "So she did know about me then?"

"Looks like it, kiddo. I think you and Tonks are the only ones to have been blown off the family tree at birth, see?" He pointed another blackened picture.

"I feel oddly satisfied by that," said Annie as she poked at her picture.

"And over here we have dear old Reggie," Sirius pointed to his brother's picture and scowled.

"He was killed by Death Eaters, right?" Annie asked turning to face Sirius.

"Most likely," he shrugged. "He joined up with the Death Eaters right after Hogwarts. My parents were so proud. I think the Death Eaters killed him when he tried to get out." Sirius straightened up and ruffled Annie's hair. He reached down and picked up the discarded trash bag and led her out of the room. "Come on, I'm starving and there's lunch downstairs."

With a last look over her shoulder, Annie left the room and followed Sirius down to the kitchen. She found her friends sitting around the table eating sandwiches looking tired from their earlier work. Annie sat down next to George and took the other half of his sandwich. She took a large bite and gave him a wide grin.

"You could have your own you know," he said reaching in front of Fred and taking a sandwich off a plate.

"Yeah, but this tastes better because I took it from you," she said biting the sandwich again and taking the other one out of his hand. "Hey, dad! What was in that bag that you had?"

Sirius looked over at her from his perch on the counter and shrugged. "A bunch of shit mostly."

"Honestly, Sirius, watch your mouth," Lily chastised from the other side of the room where she was in conversation with Mrs. Weasley.

"Well, it was. A bunch of old goblets, some locket that wouldn't open, some dusty plates. Nothing I'm interested in," he said turning back to Annie. "No point in selling it either. It's all worthless."

"Gotcha," Annie said going back to her sandwich and turning to Fred and George. "So what did you do this morning?"

"We cleaned. Load of fun that was," Fred answered, grimacing. "We sprayed doxies and chucked them in buckets."

George leaned in close to Annie and whispered, "And in our pockets."

Annie giggled and whispered back, "And what are you going to do with those?"

"You'll find out," George replied kissing the side of her head.

"Yeah, we'll need a test subject," Fred added.

"Fair enough," Annie said nodding and taking a bite of her sandwich.

After the group finished their lunch, Molly and Lily ushered them back upstairs to the drawing room. Everyone headed toward the shelves and the cabinets and tossed everything they could find into trash bags. As Annie picked up a silver goblet with some type of crest on it, she felt someone poke her in the sides. Annie jumped and turned around to find Harry grinning broadly at her reaction.

"Don't do that, you dolt!" she said punching him in the arm. "What the hell was that for?"

"Nothing really," he replied, reaching up and taking down a plate. He tossed the plate into Annie's trash bag and tried to catch her gaze. "Are you okay?"

"You didn't poke me that hard," she said looking away.

"You know what I mean." Harry reached over and ruffled Annie's hair.

Annie laughed and slapped his hand away. "Yeah, I'm good. Just another one of those nightmares again, you know?"

"Any idea as to what could have caused it?" Harry asked.

"It's the house," Annie answered simply.

"Really?"

"Look around, Harry," she said gesturing to the room. "This isn't exactly the most cheery place is it?"

Harry looked around the room and nodded. "Fair enough. Do you think you and Sirius will move back to your house then?"

Annie shook her head and leaned up against the cabinet. "Nope. I'm stuck here. I already asked him if we had to stay."

"That sucks," Harry said leaning next to her.

"Are you two working over there?" Lily called over from across the room.

"Yeah, sure, mum!" Harry called back.

"I'm not!" Annie yelled. Harry cocked an eyebrow and laughed. "Hey, at least I'm honest."

"So, Harry," Annie started with a mouth full of egg, "if you get expelled, does this mean that we'd have to find a new seeker?"

Sirius reached around Harry and smacked Annie on the back of the head.

"What?" she said looking over at him. "I said 'if'! And besides, I was only joking. You'll get off."

"Annie, there is a time and place for jokes and now isn't it," Sirius told her. "Wait, why are you even up now anyway? I thought you of all people would sleep in."

"I couldn't sleep again," Annie shrugged and took a bite of her bacon. "And I smelled bacon."

"Unbelievable," Harry muttered shaking his head.

"Did you have another nightmare?" Sirius said looking over at her with concern.

"No, just uh, a lot on my mind, I guess," she said scratching slightly at the back of her neck.

Sirius eyed her suspiciously. "A lot on your mind then?" he questioned.

Annie scratched at her neck again. "That's what I said."

"Alright," he answered as he put his fork down and got up from the table. "Whatever you say." Sirius looked around at Lydia, James, Lily, Arthur, and Harry. "Are we ready to go?"

"I think so," Lily answered picking up her bag. "Thanks for breakfast, Molly. Are you ready, Harry?"

Harry put down his half-eaten toast and got up from the table. "Yeah, sure." Annie watched as he followed his parents out of the kitchen, giving a slight wave over his shoulder.

"Good luck, Harry!" Annie called after him.

"Thanks," he called back.

As Lydia passed by Annie, she bent down and kissed her on the top of her head. "Bye, sweetie!" she said before following everyone else.

Sirius also stopped behind Annie and gently tugged on her hair to tilt her head back so he was looking at her upside down. "Hey, kiddo. I don't want to know how you got that rash on your neck," he said quietly so Mrs. Weasley wouldn't hear from the other side of the room where she was collecting plates, "but it better be gone by the time I come home, got it?"

Annie smiled. "Got it," she said. Sirius kissed her on the forehead and left her and Mrs. Weasley in the kitchen.

"Are you finished, Annie dear?" she asked picking up the plate in front of Annie.

"Oh, yes, Mrs. Weasley," Annie answered. "It was really delicious by the way."

"Thank you dear," Mrs. Weasley said waving off the compliment like it was no big deal. "Why don't you run upstairs and see if the others have woken up yet."

"Okay," she said.

Annie got up from the table and made her way upstairs. She thought about going back into her own room and seeing if Hermione and Ginny were awake, but instead she opted to up one more flight of stairs to where Fred and George were sleeping. Once she reached their bedroom door, she knocked softly before opening it up. She peered in and found the twins dead asleep, Fred lying on his stomach with one arm off the bed and George on his back with his mouth wide open. Annie crept across the floor to George's bed and lifted up the blanket and slid in underneath. George stirred as he felt the slight dip in his bed and woke up to find Annie grinning widely at him.

"Hey, you," he whispered as he let her snuggle into his chest. "What are you doing here?"

"Couldn't sleep," she yawned. "Had bacon, now tired."

"Okay," George said drifting back off to sleep.

Annie settled herself onto George's chest and let one of her hands rest on the pillow under George's head. George lifted his hand and let it tangle itself in Annie's hair. Annie fell asleep within seconds and woke up a few hours later to Fred shaking them awake.

"Get up," Fred said as he shook Annie. He moved around to the other side of the bed and started smacking George in the face. "You should be lucky I found you and not mum. She would go mental."

Annie lifted her head off George's chest and sat up rubbing her eyes. "What time is it?" she asked.

"Nine-thirty," Fred answered looking at his watch. "You know you've got a rash on the back of your neck, Annie?"

"What? Oh, yeah," she answered pushing her hair out of her eyes. "I think it's from the doxy stuff. Dad said it better be gone by the time he comes home."

"Well, any chance we can eat before we take care of that? We'll come back up and get to work." George asked swinging his feet over the bed and standing up.

"Yeah, sure. I'm hungry again anyway," she replied as she took his outstretched hand and stood up.

After eating a hasty breakfast, Annie, George and Fred returned upstairs to change. Annie was just pulling her shirt over her head when Hermione and Ginny came back in their shared room.

"Where were you this morning?" Hermione asked as she walked over to her trunk.

"This morning before breakfast you mean?" said Annie as she hopped unsteadily on one foot as she tried to put her sock on.

"Yes. You weren't here when we woke up again, and you hardly ate anything at breakfast. Are you okay?" Hermione dug. Ginny looked over at Annie with intrigue.

"I'm fine, Hermione. Really," she added when her best friend gave her a pointed look. "I couldn't sleep last night and then I woke up early. I went down and had breakfast with Harry and everybody else and when everyone left, I went upstairs and fell asleep in George's bed. No big deal."

Hermione sighed and shook her head. "You would tell me if something was wrong, right?"

"Of course," Annie said nodding affirmatively. "Anyway, I'll see you later. Fred and George promised they would help me with something. Come on Bandit." Annie patted her leg and the dog jumped off of her bed. She walked out of the room scratching the back of her neck with Bandit trailing up the stairs behind her. When she reached the boys' room, she knocked twice and opened the door. Fred and George were sitting on the floor of the bedroom, quills out and various phials in front of them. Annie walked in the room and sat down next to George.

"Do you have anything for this?" she asked turning her head to show them the rash on the back of her neck. "It's itching like crazy."

"Yeah," Fred said patting his pockets. He produced a small white tube and handed it over to her. "Put this on. It should clear up in a few minutes."

Annie took the tube and got up. She walked over to the mirror and started to dab it on the rash. When she was finished, she screwed the cap back on and sat back down.

"This stuff is great," she said handing it back to Fred who placed it back in his pocket. "Where did you get it?"

"We made it," George answered as he wrote something down on his parchment. "Came up with it last year when we were testing our stuff on ourselves. We made sure you and Lee tested our finished products before selling them to the public. And Snape thought Potions was a complete wasted on us."

"Clearly it wasn't," Annie agreed. "Did you guys get anything from the doxy stuff?"

"Yeah, we did," Fred answered. "We got the same rash you did but we didn't tell you about it because we wanted to see if it wasn't coincidence. I think we used too much doxy powder."

Annie read George's parchment as he tapped the end of his quill against his chin. "You did," she said pointing out their mistake on the parchment. "The Nosebleed Nougat was fine and produced excellent results like you proved last night when I had it, but something went wrong with the purple end of it causing the side-effect."

"Maybe we should try a little less doxy powder and a bit more dittany. What do you think, Freddie," George suggested looking up at Fred.

Fred nodded. "That might do it. You ready for another go, Annie?"

"Of course. That's why I'm here."

The three worked into the afternoon testing the twins' products on themselves and taking notes. A few hours later Ginny came knocking on the door to tell them lunch was ready and they should come down to set the table. Annie jumped on George's back and they went down to the kitchen with Fred close behind. As they sat down, they heard someone come in the front door. Harry appeared grinning widely with James behind him.

"Cleared," he announced to the room, "of all charges!"

Mrs. Weasley clapped her hands together as Hermione gave him a hug and Ron clapped him on the back. Annie, Ginny, George, and Fred got up from the table and started chanting "He got off!" while dancing around in a circle. They only quieted down when Mrs. Weasley yelled at them to shut up so she could hear herself talk.

"Are you staying for lunch, James?" Mrs. Weasley asked, ready to dish out another plate.

"No, thank you, Molly," James replied politely. "I only came to drop off Harry. I have to get back. I left Sirius alone with a bunch of our work which, if I know him well enough, isn't getting done at all."

"Yes, of course. Go, go," she said shooing him out of the kitchen. "And tell Arthur we are having meatballs tonight and make sure you invite Kingsley around for dinner."

"I will," James said before shutting the door behind him.

Mrs. Weasley came back to the kitchen and began making a plate for Harry. Harry sat down across from Annie who passed him a goblet of butterbeer.

"Congratulations," she said. "I was hoping we didn't have to replace you on the team this year."

"Thanks," Harry said. "I always knew you had confidence in me."

"Hey, Hogwarts wouldn't be the same without you."