A/N: I do not own anything Harry Potter. Thank you to all that have added me to their Favorites/Follows! You guys rock! I hope you enjoy this next chapter. Happy reading! XO
Chapter 57
Annie was fast asleep in Transfiguration. Her head was resting on her open book and she was drooling all over it. Hermione had finally given up on trying to wake her and was now focusing on Professor McGonagall's lecture about the Gemino spell. Professor McGonagall walked around the room as she spoke and waved her wand to reveal notes written on the blackboard.
"The Gemino spell, as you should have read, is the duplicating spell. What makes the spell so unique, Ms. Black?" Professor McGonagall asked, stopping in front of the sleeping girl's desk. Annie gave a slight snore in response, causing the class to break out in laughter. At the sound, she sprung awake and looked around up at Professor McGonagall who was looking down at her disapprovingly.
"Sorry, Professor," she said, wiping the drool from her chin. "What was the question?"
"Detention tonight, Ms. Black. Seven o'clock in my office," Professor McGonagall said, her nostrils flaring. "This better be the last time you fall asleep in my class."
Annie sighed and sat back in her chair and Professor McGonagall went back to her lecture. Annie picked up her quill and started taking very detailed notes, hoping that it would make up for falling asleep. At the bell, Annie threw all of her belongings in her bag and exited the classroom with Harry, Ron, and Hermione.
"You okay, pup?" Harry asked, reaching over to ruffle her hair.
"Yeah, I'm alright," she answered, shoving him lightly. "I get detention all the time. Nothing new."
"I meant about you falling asleep."
"Yeah, I'm good. Bit tired from last night is all," Annie answered, tucking her wand in the pocket of her backpack. "Well, I gotta run. I'm meeting the boys for lunch."
"I thought you were coming with us to the common room to switch out your books," Hermione said. She hoped Annie would pick up that she meant the room of requirement and that she did not want to say it out loud. Annie looked confused for a second until she realized what Hermione meant.
"I'll just look at Harry's book during Care of Magical Creatures," she said. "Anyway, I've got to go see if George can walk me to detention tonight. I'll see you in class."
Annie waved goodbye and ran down the stairs. Once in the Great Hall, she scanned the room until she found the Weasley twins and Lee sitting halfway down the Gryffindor table.
"Hey, babe," George said, pecking Annie on the cheek as she sat down and narrowly avoiding some peas flung his way by Fred. "What's new?"
"Detention," she answered, as she piled food on her plate.
"Without us?" Fred said, feigning hurt. "What for?"
"I fell asleep in Professor McGonagall's class," Annie said through a mouthful of food.
"Ouch," Lee said. "When is it?"
"Tonight," Annie replied. "Pretty sure the only reason that she didn't give me detention tomorrow too was because of quidditch practice. By the way, I ran into Angelina on the way here. Practice is cancelled for tonight because of the rain."
"Yeah, she told us this morning in class," Fred said, scooping up more peas and flinging them at Annie. The boys laughed as the food hit her in the face and Annie scowled.
"Could you guys act mature for, like, five minutes?" she asked. The boys stopped laughing and stared at her in disbelief. Annie tried to keep a straight, pissed-off face, but she couldn't hold her smile.
"You know, you almost had us going," George said, ruffling her hair.
"I couldn't keep that going," she said, scooping the food off her plate with a spoon and flinging it at Fred for revenge.
The four kids continued their food fight for the next few minutes until Professor McGonagall walked by and kicked them out of the Great Hall, taking forty points away from Gryffindor as she did so. When they reached the entrance hall, Fred and Lee went over to the stairs while Annie and George said goodbye.
"Can you walk me to detention tonight?" Annie asked, picking mashed potatoes out of her hair.
"Of course," George answered, flicking the food off of his robes. "Couldn't think of anything else I'd rather be doing."
Annie stood on tip-toe and gave George a kiss on his nose before he ran over to Fred and Lee who were making kissy sounds. Annie laughed and turned to the doors leading out of the castle to walk to Hagrid's cabin in the pouring rain.
"Hey Annie! Where are you going?" Neville called when she turned around. "Didn't you hear that Care of Magical Creatures was cancelled?"
"Was it?" Annie said, running over him, Dean, and Seamus.
"Yeah, Professor McGonagall told us in the Great Hall," Dean said, punching her in the arm. "Didn't she tell you? We saw her come over to you."
"No, she was kicking us out of the Hall and taking points from Gryffindor," Annie replied as they climbed the stairs. "Where are we going anyway?"
"Classroom on the third floor," Neville answered, leading the group.
Annie followed along behind the boys as they walked to the classroom. When they walked in, she spotted Harry, Ron, and Hermione sitting in a corner of the room and said goodbye to Neville, Dean, and Seamus as they went off on their own.
"Angelina came by and said practice is cancelled so we're going to have our first meeting tonight," Harry said as Annie sat down on top of the desk across from him.
"Yeah, Angelina told me about practice. What time for the meeting then?" she asked, reaching into her bag and pulling out her mirror and wand.
"Eight."
"Okay. Wait. Shit," Annie swore. "I can't go."
"Why not?" Ron asked, looking confused.
"I've got detention tonight with Professor McGonagall at seven remember?" Annie said.
"Then we'll just move the meeting to tomorrow night then," Hermione suggested.
"But there's practice tomorrow," Ron, refuted.
"It's okay, guys. I'll just go to the next meeting," Annie said. "Just catch me up when I get back from detention."
"Can't you just skip detention just this once?" Harry asked, hoping to convince her to come to the meeting.
"Skip detention? What kind of monster do you think I am?" Annie said, her jaw dropping in shock at the question. "I can't skip detention. As much as I would love to not have detention and be at the meeting tonight, I still have to face the consequences for being caught."
"Annie, that sounded oddly responsible of you," Hermione commented in awe.
"Thank you," Annie said, nodding once and setting her mirror floating in midair. "Now, who would like to help give me dragon pox so I can get out of Herbology?"
"I knew that was too good to last," Hermione said, rolling her eyes and going back to the book she was reading.
After classes and dinner that night, they went back to the common room to work on their homework. At quarter to seven, Annie packed up her backpack and she and George walked down to Professor McGonagall's office. After George left she knocked on the door a few times and waited to be let in.
"Good evening, Ms. Black," Professor McGonagall said, letting her student into the office. Annie followed her into the room and sat down at the table next to the desk.
"What do I have to do tonight?" Annie asked, letting her backpack fall to her feet.
"What I would like you to do is," Professor McGonagall started, placing a stack of parchment and a quill with red ink in front of Annie, "grade these tests. The answer key is there if you need it."
Annie looked down at the tests and noticed that they were all third year tests. Easy enough, she thought. I'll be out of here in no time.
She set about grading the tests, foregoing the answer key as she already knew the answers. When she came to the last test, it was already eight o'clock and her hopes of making the meeting were slim. There was no way Professor McGonagall would let her go this early. She finished grading the last test and placed it on the top of the stack.
"I'm finished with these," she said, walking them over to her professor. Professor McGonagall looked up from her work and took the tests from Annie.
"Thank you, Ms. Black," she said, placing them in her bag for her classes the next day. "I don't have anything left for you to do so you are dismissed for tonight."
Annie blinked.
"Really?" she asked.
"Yes. Surely you have something better to do," Professor McGonagall replied, giving her a knowing smile.
"Oh, um, yeah. Homework and stuff," Annie said, picking up her backpack and walking toward the door. "Have a nice night, Professor."
After leaving the office, Annie ran all the way up to the seventh floor and stopped in front of the stretch of wall that guarded the Room of Requirement. She paced three times in front of the wall until the door appeared. Annie smiled and opened the door.
"Hey, everyone!" she called, when she walked in the room and shut the door behind her. She looked around the room to find that everyone's eyes trained on her. "What's going on?"
"Hey, you actually made it," Harry commented as she walked over to the group. "What did you do to get out of detention so early?"
"Nothing. She just let me out saying I probably have better things to do then stay in detention," she answered, dropping her backpack on the floor. "I think she might know about our group thing we've got going on here."
"She knows?" Harry said, panic coming over him. "How did she find out? Did you tell her?"
"Mate, she's in the Order. I'm assuming she found out from Dung when he told dad and James and everyone else," Annie said, trying to calm him down.
"Right, that makes sense," he said, running a hand through his hair. He looked around at the room where everyone had gone back to practicing their spellwork. "Well, we're working on the disarming spell right now. Do you want to work with Neville to break up the group of three?"
"Yeah, sure," Annie said shrugging. Annie walked over to Neville, pinching George on the bum as she passed him. She laughed as his spell went wayward and hit Lee Jordan in the shoulder.
"Annie, knock it off!" Harry called from the other side of the room.
"Sorry!" she yelled back, giving Neville a fist bump before walking a few paces away. "Alright, Neville. Give me your best shot."
"Bring it on, Black," Neville countered, smiling.
The group, Annie found out they were calling themselves Dumbledore's Army, continued practicing the disarming spell for the next half hour while Harry walked around the room, helping them improve their technique. Harry called for everyone to stop once Hermione reminded him of the time.
"We need to stop here for tonight. I guess we can meet next Wednesday at the same time," Harry suggested.
Everyone nodded their assent and started to leave the room in groups, thanking Harry on their way out. George winked at Annie before following Fred and Angelina out of the room. Once everyone had left, Harry led them back to the common room where they sat down to finish the homework they abandoned before they left.
"Hey, has anyone seen my Muggle Studies book?" Annie asked, picking up cushions and throwing them around the room. "It was right here on the table."
"Have you checked your backpack?" Hermione asked, placing a cushion back on the couch. Annie picked up her backpack and looked inside.
"Not here," she said, placing it back on the floor.
"That's because it was in mine," Harry said, handing the book over to her. "How did it end up there?"
"How should I know?" Annie said, throwing herself down on the couch and opening to the correct chapter. "Great job tonight, by the way. I had a lot of fun."
"Thanks, I'm glad you did. Meant to talk to you about that, actually," Harry said, putting his quill in the inkwell as Ron looked over at him.
"Oh? What about?" Annie asked, putting her finger in her book to mark her place.
"I know you like to have fun and all, but could you please take the D.A. meetings more seriously? We're training to fight. You fooling around might get distracting sometimes," Harry said carefully as to not upset his cousin.
Annie stared at Harry, a bit taken aback by his request.
"Yeah, I can do that," she said, running a hand through her hair. "I was just trying to have a laugh."
"But, Annie, not everything requires a laugh," Harry said.
"Yeah, I'm starting to figure that out."