A/N: I do not own anything Harry Potter. Well, this is only a few days late, but is it my fault February only has twenty-eight days? Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter! Happy reading! XO

Chapter 54

"Remind me why I'm carrying you again?" George asked as he hitched Annie higher up on his back. He was following along behind Fred and Lee as they walked down the path leading into Hogsmeade.

"So I don't fall," she answered as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "And because you loooove me!"

"You know I don't recall that last bit being true at all," George said, tripping slightly over the wet cobbled stones.

"Ouch. You wound me," she said, slapping him in the head.

"Oh, come off it, Annie. You know I love you."

"I love you, too," she whispered back and kissed him on the back of his head.

"When you two are done," Lee spoke up as he turned around to walk backwards and talk to Annie and George, "what time are we supposed to meet the others?"

"Annie, you don't wear a watch," George commented as Annie held up her wrist to check the time.

"Oh, yeah," she said giggling into his shoulder. "Why is that? Anyway, Hermione said one."

"Excellent," Fred said. "That gives us some time to check out Zonko's."

The group walked into Hogsmeade and George let Annie climb off of his back. She immediately skipped ahead of them and turned into Spintwitches where they reluctantly followed. Annie went straight for the counter and rang the bell for service as Fred, George, and Lee walked around the store. An older man came out of the backroom carrying a box under one arm and gave her a warm smile.

"How are you today, Ms. Black?" he asked, placing the box on the counter.

"I'm great, Mr. Abney," Annie answered, bouncing up and down excitedly. "Did it come in?"

"Did what come in?" Mr. Abney asked, giving her a sly smile. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Mr. Abney, you might as well just show her," George shouted from behind a shelf of beater's gloves. "She hasn't stopped talking about it since Sirius wrote to her last week for her birthday."

"Oh, you must mean this," said Mr. Abney, pushing the box over to Annie. "Just came in yesterday. Figured you might want to open it yourself."

"Ah-ha!" Annie exclaimed, ripping the tape off the sides. She opened the flaps on the box and pulled out the brown, leather helmet from inside. "Yes! The new Brigham Helmet!"

"I heard the Irish National Team is using the same ones this year," Mr. Abney commented, taking the box off the counter and pulling out a bag.

"Which is why she wanted it," George explained, coming up behind Annie. "Now you can throw out your old one."

"Throw it out?" Annie gasped. She placed the helmet on the counter and Mr. Abney picked up to put into the bag. "I've had that one since second year. I can't throw it out."

"Annie you can't be serious," George rebutted. Annie pouted and George sighed. "It's all torn and I'm pretty sure it's got your blood on it in some places."

"Exactly! It's got my blood on it! It's got history! It's got character! It's -"

"It's disgusting!"

Annie rolled her eyes and turned back to Mr. Abney.

"Do I owe you anything?" she asked, taking the bag from him.

"Nothing at all," he said, chuckling quietly at the couple's squabble. "Your father took care of it already."

"Great! Thank you, Mr. Abney," Annie said, taking George's hand and motioning for the others to follow. "Have a nice day!"

"You as well!"

"Right then, Zonko's?" Fred asked when the group left the shop. "We've go about an hour before we have to be there."

"Sounds alright," George answered.

They turned the corner and walked down the path to the joke shop. Upon entering the store, Annie let go of George and picked up a basket. They walked around the store, placing various items in the basket and chatting with the store workers who know them quite well. When Harry, Ron, and Hermione came in, Annie ran up to them with a big, goofy grin decorating her face.

"Harry! Look what dad got me for my birthday!" she exclaimed taking the helmet out of the bag.

"Hey, it's the one you wanted," Harry said taking the helmet from her so he and Ron could have a closer look. "This one will definitely keep you from denting your head every practice."

"Not nice," Annie said as Ron laughed. She took the helmet back and placed it back in the bag.

"Annie, you are coming today, right?" Hermione asked quietly, looking around the shop for any eavesdroppers.

"Yeah, we'll be there," Annie answered, also looking around the shop for the boys she came in with. "We'll finish up here and head on over probably."

"Okay good. We'll see you later then," Hermione said. Annie watched as she led Ron and Harry out of the store before turning back to George who was inspecting a shelf of fake vomit kits.

"Are the Puking Pastilles almost done?" Annie asked, tucking her arm around his waist. George took the basket from her hand and kissed her on the cheek.

"Yeah, I think we've got it," he answered as they walked up to the counter behind Fred and Lee. "But you're not testing them."

"And why not?" Annie pouted.

"Because we've tested too many things on you already," Fred answered unloading everything from the basket onto the counter.

"We don't mean it personally, babe," George said, taking a bag that was passed to him. "We know you want to help, but we can't keep using you as a test monkey."

"Yeah, what if we accidently kill you? Can't have that, can we?" Fred joked, ruffling her hair.

Annie pushed his hand away and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Yeah, whatever. Are we done here? We've got to go."

Lee held the door open as the group filed out of the shop. They walked down the street, keeping an eye out for the Hog's Head where the meeting would take place. Annie noticed Ginny and Michael Corner walking ahead of them hand-in-hand. She looked to George and Fred and noticed the looks of anger on their faces. Annie took George by the hand and grabbed Fred by the elbow as they both started to make their way over to their sister.

"Leave her alone," Annie warned as Lee laughed at his two friends.

"But she's-"

"She's doing exactly what we're doing," Annie said, cutting George off and holding up their clasped hands.

"But she's our sister!" Fred argued, tugging his arm out of Annie's grip.

"Just leave her alone," Annie warned again. "She doesn't need you two to mess up her date."

"We're not gonna mess it up."

"Yeah, we're just going to improve it." George let go of Annie's hand and he and Fred ran ahead to catch up to Ginny.

"I'll kill them," Annie said to Lee. "I really will. I don't care if she's their sister. You don't do that."

"The scary thing is I actually believe you will kill them," Lee said, reaching over to ruffle her hair.

They watched as Fred and George walked up right between Ginny and Michael. Fred took Ginny by the hand and George slung his arm around Michael. Annie could feel Ginny's embarrassment as she noticed her friend's face go a deep crimson color. Annie and Lee walked into Inn a few seconds behind the unhappy couple and their friends. George was already in the middle of counting heads for Butterbeers as Fred collected the money to pay.

"Annie!" Hermione called, beckoning her over to where she, Ron, and Harry were sitting. Annie walked over and sat next to Harry who was looking around at all the people in shock.

"There's no way all of these people are really interested in joining," he said, accepting another Butterbeer from George.

"Course they are," Ron reassured. "Well, maybe not Cho. I think she's just here to see you."

"You really think so?" Harry asked, looking over at the girl who was whispering with her friend.

"Geez, Potter. Snap out of it, you're drooling," Annie said, snapping her fingers in front of his face. "Hermione, when is this thing going to start?"

"Right now. Erm, excuse me," she said, standing up. Everyone stopped talking immediately and turned their attention onto Hermione.

"Well, as you all know we're here because we want an adequate Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. And I think –we think–," she indicated Ron and Annie sitting behind her, "that Harry would be the best person for the job."

As Hermione spoke some more on the subject, Annie let her eyes wander around at all of the people who came out to see what Harry had to say. When Harry stood up to speak, she looked over at Cho who was listening to him with rapt attention while her friend looked as if she had been dragged along and had no interest in being there. Annie looked to the back of the group and saw George sitting on the table that Fred and Angelina were sitting at. She caught his eye and he winked and turned back to listening to Harry. Behind him Annie noticed a man disguised as a woman with a veil over his face sitting at a table, sipping on Firewhiskey, and seemingly listening to every word of their meeting. Annie shook her head. There was no way it was who she thought it was. But he too caught her eye and winked. Annie smiled and nodded her head in his direction and looked down at the empty bottle of Butterbeer in her hand.

"Annie, do you have anything to add?" a voice asked, bringing her out of her thoughts a few minutes later. Annie looked up from where she was picking at the label on her bottle to find everyone in the room staring at her, waiting for an answer.

"Well, Harry's saved my ass a few times so I think he would be a good teacher. Knows a bunch of stuff too so that's pretty useful, I guess," Annie commented, hoping her answer was sufficient enough to keep Hermione off her back for not paying attention.

"Thanks for your confidence in me, Black," Harry said, clapping her on the shoulder.

"Hey, I always got your back, Potter," she said giving him a thumbs up. She turned to Hermione who was looking less than pleased. "So are we doing this thing? Because I'm kind of hungry and in desperate need of some Cockroach Clusters."

Hermione rolled her eyes and looked around at everybody in the room.

"Well, if you all wish to join up, you can come over and sign this parchment and we'll let you know when our first meeting is," she said, taking a piece of parchment and a quill out of her pocket and setting it on the table in front of her.

There was a moment as everyone looked around at each other before Ginny was the first to stand up and sign the parchment. Everybody followed suit and started a line behind her. When everyone had signed and left, aside from George who was waiting on Annie, Hermione rolled up the parchment and placed it back in her pocket.

"Well, I think that went very well," she said, beaming at her friends. "Harry you did great."

"Thanks, Hermione," Harry said as they walked out of the Inn. "Annie, are you walking back with us?"

"Nope. George and I are going to Honeydukes," she said, taking George's hand.

"Alright, well we'll see you at dinner then," Harry said, waving goodbye.

"See you," George bid. He turned to Annie as they made their way up the path to the candy shop. "So, Honeydukes, a quick hello to Rosie, and then back to Hogwarts?"

"You read my mind," she said, climbing back on his back.

A half hour later, they were seated at the bar of the Three Broomsticks, sipping on Butterbeer and talking to Madame Rosmerta whenever she had a spare moment. George placed his bottle down on the counter and looked around to see if anybody was listening before leaning in towards Annie and lowering his voice.

"I forgot to ask you earlier but who did you smile and nod at in the Hog's Head?" he asked. Annie placed her bottle down next to his and swallowed her drink before answering.

"It was Dung," she said giggling. George gave her a weird look and she pressed on. "From the Order. Mundungus Fletcher. He was there at the Hog's Head. He was the veiled woman sitting at that table behind you. He recognized me so I nodded at him."

George laughed along with Annie before realization settled on his face. "Shit, you don't think he'll tell our parents about what we're doing, do you?"

Annie laughed at George and shook her head. "He won't tell your parents but he'll probably tell Uncle James, Aunt Lily, Remus, and my dad. No big deal. I've been in bigger trouble than this."

"Are you going to tell the others that Dung was there?"

"Probably not. Maybe I'll tell Harry. I haven't decided yet."

"Can I get you two kids anything else today?" Madame Rosmerta asked, coming over to clear away their empty bottles.

"No thank you, Rosie. We've got to get back to school," Annie answered, climbing off her barstool.

"Well, you two have a nice day. Come back and visit soon," she said, winking at the couple before disappearing off to clear another table.

Annie and George left the Three Broomsticks and walked all the way back to the castle. When they arrived people were already heading into the Great Hall for dinner. Annie spotted her friends already seated at the table about halfway down. She stood on tiptoe to give George a quick peck before stalking off to sit with them. With quidditch practice tomorrow, a new secret defense organization that she was a part of, and an entire bag of Cockroach Clusters, she knew there was nothing that could upset her good mood any time soon.