A/N: I do not own anything Harry Potter. I hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday season! My New Year's resolution is to try to post a new chapter at least once a month. I wish everyone a Happy New Year! I hope you enjoy this really long chapter to make up for my lack of posting. Happy reading! XO

Chapter 52

Annie giggled as George pulled her along the tunnel into Hogsmeade. It was their first trip of the semester and George had promised Annie that they would stock up on sweets and dungbombs. Just as they rounded a corner, George felt Annie's hand being ripped from his own and turned around to find her sprawled out on the ground.

"You okay, babe?" he asked kneeling beside her as she sat up.

"Ugh," she groaned, pushing the hair out of her eyes. She touched her lip with the tip of her finger and found that she was bleeding. "Ow."

"This doesn't look too good either," George remarked as he poked at the hole in her jeans where a slight gash trickled blood. George stood up and hoisted Annie up to her feet. "Come on. Let's get you checked out."

"But Hogsmeade, Georgie," Annie whined giving him a pleading look.

"Annie," George said warningly. Annie pouted and crossed her arms over her chest. "Oh, don't give me that look. We can go tomorrow."

"But we've been planning this trip since breakfast this morning," she argued.

"I know but you're bleeding everywhere," George countered as he scooped her up and walked back the way they came.

"I don't like you," Annie scoffed.

"I know that," he said kissing her forehead.

When they finally came back to the castle, George carried Annie all the way to the Hospital Wing and set her down on one of the beds. Madame Pomfrey came over and clicked her tongue at the sight of her.

"How did this happen?" she asked briskly, probing her wand over Annie.

"I tripped," Annie answered. She winced when Madame Pomfrey picked up her wrist.

"Mr. Weasley?" Madame Pomfrey looked to George for confirmation.

"It's true," he said shrugging his shoulders. "We went for a walk and she tripped."

"Only you, Ms. Black, could go for a walk and come back like this," Madame Pomfrey remarked shaking her head. "Does anything else hurt besides your knee and your wrist?" Annie sighed and looked down at her swollen wrist in the Healer's hand.

"Just my lip," she mumbled. "What's wrong with my wrist?"

"It's just sprained. Don't worry, I can mend it," Madame Pomfrey answered. She turned to the bedside table where a tray of potions had rested. She picked up a golden-brown potion and poured some of it into a goblet and handed it out to Annie. "Drink all of this please."

Annie took the goblet with an uneasy glance and took a sip. She looked down at wrist where the swelling had started to go down but still remained black and blue.

"Whoa! That's awesome!" Annie exclaimed as she wiggled her wrist around. "Ow! It still hurts though."

"Finish that potion and it won't hurt as much," Madame Pomfrey insisted. She picked up Annie's wrist again and started to wrap a bandage around it. "Now, is there anything else that needs to be fixed?"

"Just my lip and my knee," she sighed.

"Chip up then, dear," Madame Pomfrey said as she waved her wand over Annie's lip and knees and the wounds closed themselves. She wiped the dried blood off of Annie's chin as she tried to squirm away. "There we go. Honestly, Ms. Black, how many times do you think I'll be seeing you this year?"

"I don't know, a lot maybe?" Annie shrugged looking up at George.

"Is she free to go?" George asked smiling.

"Yes, yes, take her away," Madame Pomfrey said gathering up her tray and bustling away. "I better not see you in here any time soon, Ms. Black."

Annie took George's hand and stood up.

"Thanks, Poppy!" she called as they left the Hospital Wing. "Can we go to Hogsmeade now?"

"Really? We can go tomorrow. We've already wasted half the day," he answered swinging her hand back and forth.

"So let's waste the other half of the day in Hogsmeade," she said hopefully trying to tug him to the Entrance Hall.

"Are you forgetting that we've got quidditch later? You love quidditch," he argued.

"I do love quidditch," Annie mused. "Okay, let's just go to the common room then. Can we stop by the kitchens first? I haven't seen the house-elves in forever."

"Well you're really breaking me down here," George said kissing her on the cheek.

"Good, because I'm starving," Annie said pulling him towards the basement.

"Annie, I can't believe you knew about what Professor Umbridge had been doing to Harry and didn't tell anyone!" Hermione chastised as Annie joined them at the chairs around the fireplace.

"I can," Ron said.

"I told her not to tell anyone," Harry defended as Annie nodded at his side.

"And I didn't," she supplied. "Oh yeah, I forgot to ask. Did you send your letter okay?"

"What letter?" Ron and Hermione asked looking to Harry curiously.

"The one I wrote my dad about my detention, my scar hurting again, and about Hagrid," Harry shrugged. "I sent it off this morning."

"Harry, that was completely unwise," Hermione warned. "What if it gets intercepted?"

"Nobody would be able to understand it but him," he answered. "I made it seem as if it were a normal letter home. I doubt it would cause any harm. Besides, Filch was too late to intercept it anyway."

"Filch? What was he doing up in the owlery?" Ron asked.

"He came up because he claimed he had a tip-off that I was sending out for dungbombs," Harry said picking at a string in the couch.

"He could have trying to intercept it for Umbridge, Harry!" Hermione exclaimed. "That was really dangerous!"

"Yeah, but Filch has never been the brightest bloke has he?" Annie said. "I mean he's still trying to figure out who dropped the dungbombs in the prefects' toilets. First person he came looking for was me, then Fred, George, and Lee. After we'd gotten our names cleared he was dumbstruck. He still can't figure it out." Annie game a barking laugh as she wiped the tears from her eyes.

"But Annie, it was you who put the dungbombs in the toilets," Ron said shaking his head at his friend.

"Yeah, but he doesn't think that anymore does he?" she said through fits of giggles.

"How did you even come up with that anyway?" Harry asked smacking her on the arm.

"Yeah and how did you get your names cleared?" Ron asked.

"Well, first I got the idea from a story dad told me over the summer when I was in St. Mungo's about how he and Uncle James had blown up a toilet in the restroom," she started after she had calmed down a bit. "The reason I had an alibi is because I put a charm on the dungbombs so they would go off when I reached a safe distance away like the Gryffindor common room."

Annie paused to revel in her brilliance before moving on with her story.

"When they went off I was nowhere near the sight of the explosion. Neither were Fred, George, and Lee because they were all here listening to my story of what I had just done. When Filch came poking around, I told him where I was and asked him how could I have possibly gotten into the bathroom if I didn't know the password," Annie stopped again to laugh at the memory of a furious caretaker.

"Then he took it to Professor McGonagall," she continued. "She call all of the prefects into her office and asked if any of them had given me the password. Every one of them said they hadn't. You should have seen the look on Cedric Diggory's face though. He knew I did it because he gave you the password, Harry, which you relayed to me. Thanks again for that by the way." Annie concluded her story by leaning back on the couch with her legs stretched out in front of her on the coffee table, a proud, shit-eating grin on her face.

"Annie, I'm sorry but was there a point to your story or did you just want to relive 'a moment of glory' or whatever it is you call it?" Hermione asked completely exhausted by her friend's antics.

"The point of my story was that I'm awesome and Filch is an idiot who wouldn't understand Harry's letter if he was trying to intercept it for Umbridge. And I'm awesome," Annie said rolling her eyes as if they answer were quite obviously.

"Of well, now that we've got that cleared up," Hermione said sarcastically. "Can we please get this discussion back on track?"

"Hey, you guys remember that Sturgis Podmore bloke from the Order?" Harry said as he read the Daily Prophet. Once he had gotten an answer to question, he had completely tuned Annie out as she retold the story he had heard a thousand times.

"Yeah, he was the man Moody was mat at when he didn't show up for some Order duty," Annie answered. "What about him?"

"He was arrested," Harry said handing her the paper, "for trying to bread into a top-secret door at the Ministry."

"No kidding?" Ron exclaimed as he read the article over Annie's shoulder.

"I wonder why he was doing that," Annie said as she flipped the page.

"Maybe it has something to do with the Order, like that weapon thing," Hermione supplied.

"Dunno," Harry shrugged. "Hopefully they're handling it though."

The subject dropped and Hermione returned to her book and Annie had flipped to the cross-word section of the newspaper sitting on her lap. Just as she was finishing up, Harry asked Ron if he wanted to go down to quidditch practice early.

"Annie, are you coming too?" Ron asked as he stood up from the couch.

"Yup, give me one second," she said as she scratched "Celestina Warbeck" into the last remaining boxes. "That was too easy."

A few minutes later they had said goodbye to Hermione and started making their way to the pitch. Ron's nerves about his first practice only seemed to heighten when they found they were joined by Draco Malfoy and his band of Slytherin followers sitting in the stands.

"Just ignore them, Ron," Harry advised as he heard them cackling at something Malfoy had just said.

The three Gryffindors shot into the air, Ron taking his place by the goal hoops, Harry a few feet away tossing the quaffle between his hands, and Annie dangling upside down from her broom.

"Are you sure you don't belong in a zoo, Black?" Malfoy called. "You already act like a monkey and smell like one. If you ask me, Weasley's smell has started to rub off on you!"

Annie sat up on her broom as Ron's face turned a bright shade of maroon. She flew over to Harry and took the quaffle from him.

"How are two related again?" he asked as she threw the ball to Ron.

"Through a series of unfortunate events," she answered. "He was born and that was unfortunate."

Harry laughed and caught a pass from Ron. Annie and Harry continued to toss the quaffle back and forth to each other as they tried to score on Ron. He was doing fairly well despite the comments being thrown at them from below. When the rest of the team had shown up, Annie had flown over to be with her fellow chasers, Katie and Angelina.

"Okay team, I guess we'll start off with just passing the quaffle to each other," Angelina instructed when they had gathered around her. They spread out and Angelina passed the quaffle to Fred who in turn passed it to Katie. They continued for a few minutes, Ron having dropped the ball few times, until Angelina called for them to stop.

"Harry, I want you to practice catching the Snitch. Release it, wait a few minutes, and then go after it," she said looking to Harry who nodded once before zooming off to fetch the Snitch. "Fred and George, go get a bludgers and work with those."

"Aye aye, captain!" they said together as they saluted. Annie and Katie giggled and Angelina rolled her eyes when they flew off to gather up their ball. "And that leaves us. Ron, you can go to the goal hoops and Katie, Annie, and I will work with you."

Ron gulped and nodded. Annie noticed him go paler before he turned his broom around to go back to the hoops.

"Let's try running a few plays," Angelina suggested. "This way Ron can get a taste of what will be going on during the matches."

"Is that safe?" Annie asked with a glance down to the stands. "Half the Slytherin team is down there."

"We'll just do some standard ones like Three-Man Weave and Flying V. Trust me, Annie. You have no idea what I have in store for us this year," Angelina said smiling and tossing her the quaffle. "You start."

Practice had been going well for the chasers, the seeker, and the beaters, but not so well for Ron. He missed nearly every shot thrown his way and he got even more flustered as the taunts from the Slytherins grew louder and harsher. Angelina tried to tell him to ignore them but it did not seem to ease the keeper's nerves.

Annie would never admit it but the jeers were getting to her concentration as well. As she raised a hand to throw the quaffle, she didn't hear Fred's warning for her to look out. A stray bludger came her way and slammed directly into already injured wrist causing an immense pain to shoot up her arm. Annie cried out and dropped the quaffle and clutched her injured arm to her chest. Ron and Katie made to fly over to check on their injured teammate but collided in mid-air. Katie screamed and blood started to spout from her nose. Ron panicked and started apologizing profusely as Fred and George flew over to see if Katie was okay.

"Hang on, Katie," Fred said as he and George started to pat their pockets. "We may have something for that."

Ron flew out of their way over to Annie who was still clutching her wrist and cursing silently to herself. Harry came over just as Fred handed Katie what looked like the other end to a Nosebleed Nougat. They watched as Katie screamed and her nosebleed got worse.

"What the hell did you give her?" Angelina yelled as she flew over to Katie.

"Um, well it looks like we gave her the wrong end of the Nosebleed Nougat. We'll take her to Madame Pomfrey," George answered as he and Fred helped Katie fly to the ground.

"Well, that's three of our players missing. You three might as well go too," Angelina said to Harry, Ron, and Annie before flying off as well. They nodded and made their way over to the locker room, the Slytherin's howls of laughter still ringing in their ears.

As Annie changed out of her Quidditch robes, she winced in pain and leaned back against the lockers. Harry looked up in concern and asked if she was alright. She shook her head and Ron passed her a trashcan which she promptly threw up in.

"We should take her to the Hospital Wing," Harry said placing her one arm around his shoulders. Ron nodded and took her other arm. When they got there Madame Pomfrey was just finishing up with Katie. She pointed to a bed and Ron and Harry sat Annie down and handed her a bucket. After dismissing Katie she bustled over with Fred and George at her heels.

"Didn't I see you here this morning?" she asked picking up Annie's wrist. "Now what happened to you?"

"Got hit," Annie said emerging from the bucket, "with a bludger."

"I told her to look out," Fred said defensively.

"Well, clearly she didn't," George said sitting down next to her. "Is she going to be okay?"

"It's broken this time," Madame Pomfrey informed them. "She'll need to stay overnight."

"But Madame Pomfrey I'm fine!" Annie argued.

"No you're not, Ms. Black. Everyone out so she can change," the Healer said ushering everyone away and pulling the curtains closed.

Annie groaned and changed into the pajamas that were left for her. Ron, George, and Fred sat on the bed across from her and Harry took the seat next to her, ruffling her hair as he sat down.

"I don't want to be here," Annie whined when Madame Pomfrey came back with a tray of potions.

"Well, that is not your decision is it? Twice in one day!" she tutted turning to George. "You were supposed to be looking out for her." She finished dosing out the potions to Annie who sat back against her pillows, she left the group of teenagers alone went to her office.

"Practice sucked today," she said picking up her wrist and inspecting the newly wrapped bandage.

"Angelina's gonna be pissed," Fred commented. "First practice and we're already down a player."

"Is Katie not allowed to play?" Annie asked now trying to take the bandage off her wrist.

"No, she can play. I was talking about you," Fred said raising an eyebrow in confusion. "You seriously don't think you can play like that do you?"

"This is why I train with both hands," she said waving her injured hand around. "I'm just as good with my right as I am with my left. You only have to grip a broom with one hand and throw with the other."

"She's got a point you know," Ron said.

"Gwenog Jones does it," Annie pointed out.

They watched Annie struggle with the bandage for a few minutes until she gave up muttering something about it being magically bound.

"Okay, everyone out," Madame Pomfrey announced as she came over to hurry the boys out of the wing. "Ms. Black needs her sleep and she won't have it if all of you are here."

"See you tomorrow, Annie," Fred said as he and Ron ruffled her curls.

George gave her a kiss goodbye before following his brothers out of the ward.

"Are you going to be okay?" Harry asked.

Annie sighed and blew a piece of hair out of her eyes.

"Yeah, I'll be okay," she said. "See you tomorrow."

Harry waved and walked away. Annie watched the door swing shut and slumped back against the pillows.

"This is going to be a long night."