A/N: I do not own anything Harry Potter. Thanks so much to those that have been adding me to their Favorites/Alerts! I really hope you enjoy this chapter. Happy reading! XO

Chapter 53

Annie was dismissed from the Hospital Wing after lunch the next day after insisting to Madame Pomfrey that she was absolutely fine and had homework she needed to finish for classes the next morning. She walked through the corridors in a sleepy haze, hands in her pockets and yawning every few seconds. Annie had had another nightmare that night that she could not remember the contents of and was unable to go back to sleep. She tried to put it off as having been sick and her wrist hurting during the night, but she couldn't help but shake the feeling that something else was wrong. As she stumbled slightly through the corridors, she really wished Madame Pomfrey had remembered to give her a Dreamless Sleep potion so she wouldn't be left with these thoughts. Annie came to the portrait of the Fat Lady and gave her the password. She climbed into the common room and found her friends sitting in their usual seats by the fire. She flipped herself onto the couch without a word and picked up her Muggle Studies book to start her homework.

"Madame Pomfrey let you out then?" Harry asked when Annie hadn't greeted them.

"Yup," she said looking up from her book. "Wrist still hurts though."

"Are you okay?" Hermione asked eyeing her suspiciously. Annie was acting oddly and she wanted to get to the bottom of her behavior.

Annie shrugged and turned back to her book. "Yeah, I'm fine. Otherwise Poppy wouldn't have released me."

"Are you sure?" Harry pried. "You look kind of upset about something."

"Yes, Harry, I'm fine," she said throwing her head back against the couch. "I'm just annoyed that I have a ton of homework and I can't really write my essay with my wrist all wrapped up."

"Okay, okay," he said defensively. "If you need any help just let us know."

"Mm-hm."

The group sat in silence as Harry, Ron, and Annie worked on the homework. Hermione sat with Crookshanks on her lap, reading ahead for her classes and occasionally offering some help to Ron and Harry. After struggling for some time on her work, Annie finally placed her quill down on her sloppily written homework and looked up at Hermione.

"Can you help me with this?" she asked, running her uninjured hand through her hair.

"Sure," Hermione answered, placing a bookmark inside her book and setting it aside. She got up from her chair and sat beside Annie who had been sitting on the floor for the past hour. "What do you need help with?"

Annie pushed her parchment and quill over to her friend and leaned on her elbow. "I just need help writing. My wrist hurts and my handwriting is turning out like shit."

"Okay. I'm ready whenever you are."

Annie dictated her essay to Hermione who wrote every word as neatly as possible. When they had finished with her essay, Hermione rolled it up and handed it to Annie who had shoved it into her bag. Hermione suggested that they head off to dinner and Annie yawned and nodded. Harry and Ron put their own homework away and followed the girls out of the portrait hole.

"Alright, what's with you?" Harry asked pulling Annie back to walk with him. "You look like you're about to fall asleep at any moment and you've been moody since you got back."

"And you weren't excited about getting dinner," Ron added to Harry's observations.

Annie sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "I had a nightmare last night," she said quietly as she shrugged out of Harry's grip and lead the group down the stairs to the Great Hall. "I couldn't go back to sleep last night and I've been up since. It was probably just because I got sick yesterday so it's really no big deal."

"You could have just told us that," Harry said as they took their seats at the table.

"Yeah, I know."

Annie sighed and she sat across from him and pulled the dishes toward her. She wolfed down her dinner, making very little conversation with her friends. When she had finished she sat back in her seat and waited for them to be done as well. After dinner they all went back to the common room to resume their schoolwork. Not long after they arrived, Annie fell asleep sprawled out on the couch. The others continued working quietly late into the early hours of the morning.

"So how long has she been asleep?" a quiet voice called from the fireplace to the three studying teenagers making them jump. They all looked to the fire and found James Potter's head grinning up at them.

"Dad!" Harry exclaimed. He placed his quill into the inkwell and turned to look at Annie who was sprawled out on the couch. "Um, I don't know how long Annie's been asleep. A few hours I guess." He looked around to Ron and Hermione who nodded in confirmation. "What are you doing?"

"Answering your letter," James said. "You might want to wake up Annie. You know as well as I do that she'll get pissed if she doesn't hear what I have to say." Hermione, who was the closest to the sleeping girl, reached over and shook her awake.

"What? What is it? It was just swelling solution, I swear," Annie mumbled as she began to stir. She turned her head to face her friends and pushed herself up, wincing as she placed weight onto her broken hand.

"What did you use swelling solution on?" Ron asked laughing at Annie's disheveled state.

"Shut up, Ron," Annie muttered before stifling a yawn. She ran a hand through her hair, pushing it out of her eyes and looked around the common room for other people. "What's going on? Is it time for class already?"

"Hey, pup," James greeted from the fireplace. "What happened to your hand?"

"Uncle James?" questioned Annie, perking up a little bit. "I broke it yesterday at practice. What's going on?"

"Yeah, I think we'd all like an answer to that, dad," Harry quipped.

"Like I said, I'm answering your letter," James said looking to Harry. "You said your scar hurt again."

"Yeah, in Umbridge's office when she touched my hand," Harry supplied. "You don't think there's any connection between her and Voldemort do you?"

"Umbridge may be a vindictive little bitch but I don't think she was ever a Death Eater," James replied, causing Harry, Annie, and Ron laugh and Hermione to roll her eyes.

"Hang on," Annie said as she snapped her fingers in realization. "She's the one who- That nasty little- I knew there was a reason I hated her." She groaned in frustration and smacked her hand on the couch. She yelped in pain and pulled her broken wrist back against her chest.

"Annie, what are you going on about?" Hermione asked, looking at her friend and wondering what caused her outburst.

"I think what she's trying to say is that Umbridge drafted an anti-werewolf bill that makes it hard for Remus to find a job in the wizarding world," James answered for Annie. "She's very against half-breeds probably because she's afraid of 'em."

"That's terrible," Hermione expressed as Ron and Harry nodded.

"Yeah, you're telling me. Say, how are her classes? Are you being trained to kill half-breeds or other magical creatures? Annie, don't answer that," he added when he noticed she was about to speak up.

"Well, we haven't done any training at all really," Harry answered.

"Yeah, we've just been reading the stupid textbook," added Ron. "Said there's no use in learning the spells."

"And it's a boring textbook. It doesn't even have any pictures!" Annie supplied.

"Sounds about right," James said, chuckling at Annie's comment. "There's been talk around the Ministry that Fudge doesn't want you trained in combat. He thinks Dumbledore may use the students as an army against him. Wouldn't surprise me if Fudge has Dumbledore arrested on some made up charge sometime soon."

"That's just ridiculous!" Hermione said, outraged. "We're being deprived of a proper education because of Fudge. And, I can't believe I'm saying this, but Annie's right."

"Yes!" Annie exclaimed, thrusting her fist in the air triumphantly before turning to Hermione looking confused. "Wait, why am I right?"

"The textbook is boring," she answered, leaning her elbows on her knees and resting her chin in her hands. "You can stop gloating over there," she added, looking to Annie who was doing a small victory dance.

"What about Hagrid?" Harry asked, tearing his attention away from Annie and back to James. "Where's he been?"

"That I can't tell you," James said. The four teenagers groaned at the lack of information and James went on. "He was supposed to back by now though. Madame Maxime said they were separated on the way back."

"Madame Maxime?" Harry questioned as Annie wolf-whistled and Ron gave her a high-five.

"Yeah, they were traveling together. He should be fine though. She would have said something and we would have known by now. Dumbledore's not worried about him so you guys shouldn't be either," James said to their concerned and unconvinced faces. "Just don't bring any attention to his absence, okay? The last thing we want is for Umbridge to start poking around."

"Yeah, okay," Harry agreed, the others nodding understandingly.

"Well, before I go I've got another message to pass along," James said, looking to Annie who immediately looked guilty of something.

"Is this about the glue trap in Kreacher's bed thing back at Grimmauld place? Because I swear I saw a mouse and I just wanted to catch it," she poured out.

"I should have known that was you," James said after Annie's confession. "It ended up on the back of his head by the way. We were pretty sure he didn't know it was there and every time he turned around, Remus, Sirius, and I would lose our shit. That was until Lily noticed and took it off."

Annie, Harry, and Ron laughed as Hermione rolled her eyes and muttered something about "bullying a house-elf."

"Anyway, that wasn't what the message about," James said, getting them back on track. "Sirius said that you've been back at school for a week and he's already gotten three owls about you and neither of them was from you. He said something about a detention from Professor McGonagall the night you went back to school and two from Madame Pomfrey yesterday. He told me to tell you to write to him about what was going on."

Annie looked down sheepishly and started to play with the bandage around her wrist.

"I was gonna get to it. But I can't exactly write with my hand like this," she said, lifting up her arm for him to see it better. "Hermione had to write my essay for me."

"Alright, pup, I'll let him know. Well, I guess I should get going," James said looking around at his son and his friends. "Anything else you guys want to talk about?"

"Yeah," Annie piped up, everyone turned to look at her curiously. "Where do babies come from?"

"And on that note, get some sleep guys," James popped out of the fireplace and the fire died away.

Annie ran down the stairs two at a time all the way from the seventh floor down to the first to make it to Professor McGonagall's office on time. Upon reaching the first floor, she sprinted down the corridor and skidded to a halt outside the Transfiguration professor's office door. She secured her bag over one shoulder before knocking and entered when she heard Professor McGonagall's voice.

"You're late again," Professor McGonagall said, not looking up from where she had just marked an "A" on a student's essay. "It is very hard to take you seriously if you are constantly late, Ms. Black."

"I'm sorry Professor," Annie said, sitting down on the chair in front of the desk. "I was finishing up the homework for class tomorrow and lost track of time. I promise it won't happen again."

Professor McGonagall placed her work aside and stood up to retrieve her animagus book from its shelf. Annie reached down into her backpack and extracted hers as well. Professor McGonagall sat back down at her desk and flipped to one of the pages.

"Will you please turn to page five?" she asked. Annie nodded and turned to the page. Written at the top in large, bold letters was animagus spell. "What can you tell me about the Corpus Mutatio spell?"

Annie looked down at her book for a brief moment before giving her answer.

"Well, it's the spell used to change into an animagus," Annie started, looking back up at her professor who nodded for her to go on. "You can use it with your wand or, if you're really good, without one."

"Excellent," Professor McGonagall commended. "Now there's a reversal spell to the Corpus Mutatio -"

"Yeah, the Corpus Retro," Annie interrupted, skipping ahead a few pages in the book. "It changes you back to human form."

"I see you've read the second chapter as well," Professor McGonagall commented, seeming very impressed with her student.

Annie shrugged and held one of the pages between her fingers.

"I'm half-way finished."

"You are?"

"Yes!" Annie said, snapping the book shut and glaring at her teacher. "Why do you sound so shocked by that? I'm really, genuinely, interested in this stuff. Contrary to popular belief, I actually do take my school work just as seriously as quidditch." Annie crossed her arms over her chest and slumped back against her chair, letting the book in her lap falling to the floor.

"I'm sorry Ms. Black," Professor McGonagall apologized. She had had her doubts about Annie's seriousness to the animagus training before when she would show up late or mutter obscenities under her breath when she could not grasp something right away, but tonight she realized that she was very wrong. "I should not have been surprised when you announced that you had finished half the book. Rather I should have figured you had, being one of the top students in the class. However, if you want people to know that you are serious about your work, then maybe you need to show that you are a bit more."

Annie blew a stray piece of hair out of her eyes and bent down to pick up her book. When she straightened up again, she reopened the book to the page they had been on and looked at her professor.

"I guess you're right. But I'm not going to the library to study. That's where I draw the line," Annie said, grinning.

"Goodness, no," Professor McGonagall agreed. "We can't have you going there. Madame Pince still hasn't fully forgiven you for that small fire you caused."

Annie laughed at the memory and looked back down at her book.

"So what were you saying about the Corpus Mutatio and Corpus Retro spells?" Annie asked, trying to get back on topic.

They continued their lesson for the next two hours until Professor McGonagall dismissed her from her office. Before Annie left the office, she turned back to her professor who was cleaning off her desk.

"Is there something else you wish to discuss, Ms. Black?" she asked, noticing the student still in her doorway.

"Um, yeah, there was," Annie said, hitching her backpack higher up on her shoulders. "It said in the Daily Prophet today that Professor Umbridge was made the 'Hogwarts High Inquisitor'," Annie stated, adding air quotes to her words for emphasis. "Hermione and I figured out that on the first night back that the Ministry was interfering at Hogwarts. Does Professor Umbridge's appointment mean that she was sent to spy on the teachers?"

Annie stared at Professor McGonagall as she waited for an answer. Professor McGonagall seemed as though she was trying to choose her words carefully before giving a response to her student.

"Professor Umbridge did arrive at Hogwarts under the appointment of the Minister," she started cautiously. "She was given the title of High Inquisitor to ensure that the student's at Hogwarts are receiving a sufficient education. The position gives her some powers that a regular teacher would not have that include inspecting classrooms, dismissing teachers she feels unfit for the job, and gathering information, which may have been the intentions of the Minister."

Annie nodded, taking in the information that her professor had just told her. So, Professor Umbridge was there to spy, Professor McGonagall just didn't say it outright.

"Thanks, Professor," Annie said with her hand on the doorknob. "I'll see you tomorrow in class."

"Have a nice night, Ms. Black."

A/N: If you didn't know, I have written three one-shot stories about Annie and Sirius. They are Boggarts, Sirius Black: Father to Be, and So Close. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Until next time! XO