The first thing Annabelle heard was a couple voices talking quietly from a short distance away. Turning her head a bit, she realized it was on something soft and fluffy, like a pillow. Scrunching up her face, Anna tried to force her eyes open. While trying to convince her eyelids to open, she took a deep breath through her nose. The scents she recognized were bitter potions, an aromatic smell that she recognized as some kind of flower, something woodsy, and…gunpowder.
Anna's lips twitched slightly and she finally forced her eyes open. With her head turned to one side, she saw the far, back wall of the hospital wing. And sitting on the small table next to her bed was a bouquet of oriental lilies and tulips in a glass vase. All the oriental lilies were a dark reddish-orange in the middle, but then the peddles faded out to a lighter orange near the ends. The tulips were colored much the same.
"Better than the last bouquet I got you, huh?" a familiar voice spoke from her other side. "I figured you'd like orange better then pink."
Anna smiled, slowly turning her heavy head to look to her other side. There, sitting in a chair at her bedside, was Fred.
"Hi." she whispered before clearing her throat since her voice came out croaky. "And yeah, way better than pink."
Fred grinned, reaching over and picking her hand up off the sheets to hold in both of his. His warm palms felt wonderful on her cold skin. "I know I wanted to see you again soon, but this wasn't exactly what I had in mind." he told her jokingly. "How're you feeling?" he asked, his tone turning more gentle as he looked down at her.
Anna's brows furrowed as she took stock of her aches and pains. "Um,…I'm a bit lightheaded. My mouth and throat is dry. Uh, my stomach…" Anna trailed off, trying to lift her heavy head off her pillow to look down at her stomach. She was wearing a simple, white robe that she didn't recognized as her own.
Fred squeezed her hand, and Anna let her head fall back so she could look over at him. "Do you remember what happened?" he asked softly. "You guys were at the Department of Mysteries."
Anna's eyes went a little wide and she focused on Fred's freckled cheeks as she thought back on what she could remember. "I followed the Order members in case they needed any help…Harry was trying to get Neville out of there, but Neville's legs were going crazy. My dad…" Anna sucked in a breath. "Dad was dueling Bellatrix Lestrange. He was messing around, and I didn't want him to get himself hurt or killed. So, I snuck up behind her and attacked her with Stupefy, but it didn't work as well as it could've, because I did it silently. But it got her attention, and me and Dad started dueling her. But then…" Anna paused to think, "I got distracted. I saw a couple Death Eaters behind Bellatrix. They were running away. They were scared of something. I glanced around to see what they were running away from, but then…I think Bellatrix attacked me, but…everything gets kinda fuzzy after that."
Fred nodded slowly, his grin no longer lighting his face as he looked at her. "Yeah. Obviously I wasn't there, but Sirius and Remus filled me in when I got here. The Death Eaters started running away because Dumbledore showed up. And when you got distracted, Bellatrix hit you with a Severing Charm, or something like that, right in the stomach. Madam Pomfrey fixed you up after they got you back here, but she said you'll need to take another Blood Replenishing Potion after you've woken up. And you'll need to rest and take it easy for a few more days."
Anna nodded slowly before she tensed and looked around the room. "The other's…?" she asked worriedly.
Fred smiled reassuringly before scooting over slightly so she could see past him. Hermione was sleeping in the bed next to Anna's, and Ginny, Neville, Harry, Luna, and Ron were all just past her in their own beds in varying degrees of consciousness. Ginny was sitting up and talking with Luna, Harry, and Neville.
"They're all fine, for the most part. Pomfrey's taking care of 'em." Fred assured her, reaching over to tuck some of her hair behind her ear.
"Good." Anna sighed in relief, laying back on her pillow again. "So, what all happened after I passed out?"
Fred hummed thoughtfully, leaning his elbows forward on the edge of her bed and holding her hand between both of his. "Well, um,…Bellatrix Lestrange took off after she attacked you, and Harry decided to chase her down for some reason. I think he just wanted to make sure all of You-Know-Who's followers were back behind bars. But…I guess You-Know-Who himself showed up and they dueled, and Dumbledore showed up to help. Basically, only You-Know-Who and Bellatrix Lestrange got away. All the other Death Eaters were arrested and taken to Azkaban."
"Really?" Anna perked up. "All of them? Even Malfoy?" If Malfoy got locked up, Anna found she felt that that would be some form of justice. Even if he wasn't arrested for rigging Anna's trial, at least he would be put behind bars for something, which was better than nothing.
Fred grinned. "Even Malfoy. And that's not all of it, either. Apparently Ministry people started showing up just in time to see You-Know-Who before he vanished again. Even the Minister himself saw him. I reckon Fudge'll be making an official statement by tonight."
Anna sighed, a relieved smile stretching over her cheeks as she let her head drop back on the pillow. "It's about bloody time."
"You're telling me." Fred agreed, chuckling.
"Anything else I need to know about?" Anna asked, opening her eyes again and lazily turning her head to look at him again.
"Hmm. George hopes you feel better. He'll probably pop in to see everyone either later tonight or tomorrow, but one of us needed to stay at the shop until it closed for the day. I brought a bunch of chocolate frogs for everyone from the both of us." he added, nodding toward Anna's flowers. She turned her head to see about a handful of chocolate frogs sitting on the small table next to the vase. Turning her head again, she saw similar piles on all the other bedside tables for the others.
"Oh, and check that out." Fred suddenly whispered, leaning down and pointing at the beds opposite to Anna's and the other's. Anna followed his pointing finger and her mouth fell open slightly. Umbridge was in one of the beds, her usually neat hair messed up with twigs and leaves sticking out of it.
"She's not too seriously hurt. Apparently Harry and Hermione got her carried off by the centaurs. Dumbledore went into the forest and got her with no problems, and no one knows how he managed to pull it off."
"Well, that's not too surprising." Anna murmured, looking back at Fred. "It's Dumbledore. He's capable of just about everything."
Fred snorted quietly. "True."
Anna's eyes were heavy, and she was struggling to focus. Fred noticed and kissed her forehead.
"Rest your eyes, love. Someone will be here when you wake up."
XXX
When Anna woke up again, it was a few hours later and both twins were in the hospital wing when she blinked her eyes open. Madam Pomfrey saw her open eyes first and forced a nasty-tasting Blood-Replenishing Potion down her throat before she could fall asleep again.
"I was wondering if I'd get to talk to you today." George commented, approaching Anna's bed from where he'd been talking to Ron, Neville, and Ginny. Anna couldn't see Luna anywhere, but Harry was sitting with Hermione, who was awake.
"Hey. How's the shop doing?" Anna asked curiously.
"Brilliantly." George told her with a grin, sitting on the edge of Anna's bed. "We're raking in the Galleons and we're busy all the time. We aren't getting many people in the actual shop yet, since everyone's in school, but we've got a list of mail orders a mile long."
"Sounds like fun." Anna said with a slight grin.
The large doors to the hospital wing swung open and everyone turned to see who entered. Anna perked up when she saw both her parents, Aslan in her mother's arms.
"Anna!" Sirius beamed, leading his wife across the room to their daughter. George politely got off Anna's bed and moved around it to sit on a chair on her other side. Fred scooted closer to the head of Anna's bed so he wasn't in the way. He also helped Anna to sit up, propping her pillow up behind her.
"How're you feeling, darling?" Wren asked, smiling softly even as her eyes scanned Anna's body worriedly.
"I'm fine, Mum." Anna assured her.
Aslan wiggled in his mother's arms, holding his hands out for his sister. Wren and Sirius chuckled.
"Someone missed his big sister." Sirius noted.
"Is your stomach okay? Do you want to hold him?" Wren asked uncertainly.
"My stomach's fine. Pomfrey healed it up and it doesn't even hurt anymore." Anna assured her mother again, holding her hands out for her little brother. At ten months old, Aslan was quite a bit bigger than the last time Anna had seen him in January, and he looked like he could sit up on his own easily. And when Anna took him in her hands, she was surprised by how big he was. He had to be at least twenty pounds now.
"Jeez, you're heavy." Anna huffed jokingly, plopping her brother into her lap.
"And active." Wren laughed, sitting on the edge of Anna's bed. "He's been crawling for a while, and he just started walking. He's been getting into all kinds of trouble."
Fred, George, and Anna laughed, while Sirius joked, "What are you complaining about? You're at work all day. I'm the one who has to watch him most of the time."
"Mhm." Wren eyed him through narrowed eyes. "And how often does Remus have to step in because you're not paying attention to your own son?"
"Oh come on, I pay attention to him. He's just a quick little bugger." Sirius corrected her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders while using his other hand to tickle Aslan's side. Aslan giggled and crawled up Anna's stomach. Anna easily lent him her hands, which he used to pull himself up to a standing position on her lap.
"Oh, have any of you seen Dumbledore?" Anna asked suddenly, looking up between her parents and the twins. "Or McGonagall?"
"I spoke with Dumbledore a little while ago, and he said he'd be popping in to check on all of you in a while. Why?" Sirius answered.
"Um, well,…" Anna hesitated, looking back down at her brother. "I just needed to talk to one of them about something…"
"Anna." her mother spoke in a warning tone. "What did you do this time?"
"I didn't do anything." Anna defended herself. "I just…may or may not have skipped my History of Magic NEWT." she admitted quietly.
"Anna!" Wren exclaimed in shock.
"I didn't do it on pur-well, I mean obviously I did do it on purpose, but…come on, Harry had that dream, and we all thought you were being tortured." Anna explained, looking up at her dad. "I couldn't just take some stupid test thinking you were going to be killed by Voldemort."
Sirius sighed, nodding his head. "I suppose so." He tightened his hold around his wife's shoulders. "Dumbledore would understand, love. I'm sure he could pull some strings so Anna could take her test later."
Wren sighed, looking worried. "I suppose so."
"Hey, worst case scenario, I don't get that NEWT and I'll take a job at Fred and George's shop instead of the Ministry."
"Yeah!" Fred and George agreed easily. Sirius laughed while Wren smiled, though she looked like she didn't exactly like that option.
Anna's family and the twins stayed for a good hour, talking with all the kids before saying they'd see them on the platform and leaving.
XXX
Anna was released from the hospital wing the next day, and Dumbledore indeed pulled some strings so that she could take her History of Magic NEWT that afternoon. The next few days were rather uneventful, and Anna spent a good portion of her time in the hospital wing keeping the others company. When she wasn't in there, she was hanging out with her other friends, usually outside to enjoy the hot, sunny weather, and a couple last swims in the lake before they left Hogwarts.
Professor Flitwick, who'd sworn to Umbridge he didn't know how to get rid of the twins' portable swamp, got rid of said swamp in three seconds flat. But he did keep a tiny patch of it roped off, saying it was a good bit of magic.
Harry also almost got into a fight with Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle, but luckily McGonagall returned to Hogwarts just in time to rescue Harry from Snape and give Gryffindor plenty of points.
Ron and Hermione were the last of their little group to be released from the hospital wing, which was a few days before the end of term. But the highlight of the week was the day before the end of term, at least in Anna's opinion.
Umbridge had tried sneaking out of the hospital wing while everyone else was at dinner, probably hoping to leave without anyone noticing.
She must've forgotten about Peeves.
The poltergeist clearly wanted to take advantage of his last chance to follow Fred's orders. He joyfully chased her off the grounds, whacking her with both McGonagall's walking stick and a sock full of chalk. Anna was among the hundreds of students to race to the entrance hall to watch her run away like the coward she was. The Heads of Houses made halfhearted attempts to restrain the students and make them return to their dinners. McGonagall hardly did anything before sitting back down. Though, Anna heard her voice her regret that she hadn't been able to join in because Peeves stole her walking stick.
"I still can't believe McGonagall said that." Anna laughed the next night at dinner, the last night of the school year.
"I know!" Angelina laughed. "Merlin, I'm going to miss her." she sighed, looking wistfully up toward the staff table.
"Well, I'm going to miss all of you." Katie sighed with a sad smile, looking around at Anna, Lee, Alicia, and Angelina. "It just won't be the same without all of you on the Quidditch team."
"Aw, you'll be fine." Anna wrapped an arm around Katie's shoulders. "Harry will probably be back on the team next year, and maybe Ginny."
"Yeah, I know. But it won't be the same." Katie sighed.
"I thought the same after Charlie graduated." Anna pointed out. "But I lived."
"I know." Katie repeated, taking another bite of her dinner.
XXX
Anna sighed deeply, turning to look back over her shoulder and up at the castle behind her. She would certainly miss this place, and more than anything, she was almost terrified to leave. While in Hogwarts, it felt like nothing could hurt her, even though she knew that was far from true. But with Voldemort's return finally being acknowledged, and a war on the horizon, she was almost terrified to leave the safety of Hogwarts' walls.
"Everything will be fine." Angelina told her, wrapping an arm around Anna's shoulders. "We're ready to move on. Right?"
Anna grinned at her and Alicia, who stood just past her. "Right."
Every other year, the students would get on the carriages and ride back to Hogsmeade station, but not for seventh year. No, all the seventh years of every House were currently standing in a ragged line starting on the school grounds and ending in the entrance hall. McGonagall was standing in front of them all, Professors Sprout, Flitwick, and Snape fanned out behind her.
McGonagall had just given them all a speech about how they were entering the real world and were about to face new challenges that they'd never faced before. Now, the line was slowly moving forward as she handed them something. As Anna and her friends were near the middle, she wasn't quite sure what they were being given.
Finally, after about five minutes, Angelina was the first of their group to reach the Heads of Houses. McGonagall smiled at her, tapped her wand to a sheet of parchment, and said a few short words before handing the parchment to Ang. The girl gave McGonagall a smile and a nod before stepping past her.
Anna stepped forward next, unaware she was holding her breath.
McGonagall smiled at her, as well, before tapping her wand to a sheet of parchment and handing it to her.
"Congratulations, Ms. Black. It was an honor to have been your teacher."
Anna smiled gratefully, feeling a familiar burn in her eyes as she took the parchment from her Head of House. "Thank you, Professor." she returned thickly.
With that, Anna stepped past the four Professors and followed Angelina down to the lake, where the same boats that had carried them their first year were waiting at the waters edge. As she walked across the grounds, Anna finally looked curiously down at the sheet of parchment in her hand.
Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Test RESULTS
Pass Grades:
Outstanding (O)
Exceeds Expectations (E)
Acceptable (A)
Fail Grades:
Poor (P)
Dreadful (D)
Troll (T)
ANNABELLE ESME BLACK HAS ACHIEVED
Care of Magical Creatures: O
Charms: O
Defense Against the Dark Arts: E
Herbology: E
History of Magic: E
Potions: E
Transfiguration: O
Anna grinned to herself as she scanned her grades. She'd managed to get all seven of her NEWTs. Sure, that wasn't too surprising, but she would've thought she would've got at least one or two Acceptables, but she got all Outstanding and Exceeds Expectations.
"Did you get all your NEWTs?" Angelina asked eagerly as Anna joined her, carefully stepping into the boat. She quickly realized they'd only fit about two or three of them in each boat.
"Yeah, and these seem smaller than last time." Anna noted out loud as she carefully sat down.
"Well, we were eleven last time we road in these." Angelina pointed out as Alicia and Lee got in a second boat next to them.
"True."
They road their boats across the Black Lake, which was calm and serene under the warm sun. Anna couldn't stop herself from reaching a hand down and letting her fingers drag through the cool water. When her hand bumped something, she drew it back quickly only to see the giant squid peaking out of the water. Anna laughed, reaching down and touching the squid's cold, smooth skin.
It felt like they blinked and they were suddenly stepping onto the train. Their usual group found an empty compartment and settled in for the ride. While they did still talk and play games, it was mildly subdued. They didn't quite want to acknowledge the fact that they would never ride the train together like this again.
"It's a bit nerve-wracking, isn't it?" Angelina asked after the deck of Exploding Snap cards exploded in Lee's face. "It's really happening. We're going out into the real world, just in time for a war. I think it's finally hitting me."
"Same here." Alicia murmured. "I mean, we've all known for almost a year that You-Know-Who's back, but to see it printed on the Daily Prophet…"
"Yeah." Anna whispered while the others nodded in agreement.
When the train neared the platform, they all went down to the bathroom to change out of their school robes. Anna couldn't help holding the worn robes up after pulling them off, gazing at them for a long moment. Sure, she'd bought a few different school robes over the years, so these weren't the same ones from her first year. But they represented the same thing, and they carried thousands of memories of her school years.
When the train finally pulled into the station, Anna followed the others onto the platform. As she pushed her trolley toward the barrier, she barely caught a glimpse of Ginny 'saying goodbye' to her new boyfriend, Dean Thomas. The day they started dating, Ginny told her how she'd dumped Michael Corner. Anna couldn't wait until her brothers found out. Though, Ron would probably prefer Dean to Michael. Maybe.
After running through the barrier, Anna hugged Angelina, Alicia, and Katie goodbye with promises to keep in touch. Then, they all went their separate ways to find their families.
It was fairly easy for Anna to find her family. The group was so large they stood out in the crowd as multiple people gave them a wide berth. Anna's mind barely registered the large group and it's members, but she focused mainly on the group in front consisting of her parents, brother, Molly, Arthur, George, and Fred.
Grinning widely, Anna pushed her trolley a little farther before hurrying past it to hug her parents first, one arm around each of them. Sirius kissed the top of her head and Aslan wiggled in the space between Anna and Wren's chests. Whilst in the group hug, Anna smiled over her parents' shoulders at the group behind them.
Moody was there wearing a traveling cloak, a bowler hat over his magical eye, and carrying a long staff. Tonks was just past him with bubble-gum pink hair, patched jeans, and a purple Weird Sisters t-shirt. Next to Tonks stood Lupin, his hair a bit grayer than it was last Christmas, and a threadbare overcoat over his shabby jumper and trousers.
When Anna pulled away from her parents, Molly stepped forward and gave her a tight hug before she was able to greet the twins. She threw her arms around Fred's neck, his going around her lower back. He buried his face in her neck for a moment before he pulled back. Finally getting a good look at him, Anna stepped back and looked him over.
"What on earth are you wearing?" she asked with a laugh just as Ron, Harry, and Hermione arrived. She was referring to the lurid green jackets both twins were wearing made of some scaly material.
"Finest dragon skin." Fred answered smugly, winking at his little brother, who was gaping at them. "Business is booming and we thought we'd treat ourselves."
"Charlie's going to skin you when he sees those." Anna noted.
"Hello, Harry." Remus greeted the black-haired boy.
"Hi…" Harry greeted uncertainly. "what are you all doing here?"
"Well," Remus exchanged an almost-devious smile with Sirius. "we thought we might have a little chat with your aunt and uncle before letting them take you home."
"I dunno if that's a good idea." Harry argued at once. Anna bit her lip to keep from laughing. From what she knew of Harry's aunt and uncle, they would practically piss themselves when they saw this particular group.
"Oh, I think it is." Sirius countered deviously. Wren shook her head, but couldn't stop herself from smiling.
"That'll be them, will it, Potter?" Moody pointed his thumb over his shoulder, his magical eye peering through the back of his head. Anna peaked around the group and caught sight of the Dursleys looking horrified by the people Harry was talking to.
Anna, Fred, and George snickered and stayed where they were while most of the group approached the Dursleys.
"Oh, they really are going to piss themselves." Anna laughed, shaking her head as George gave her a hug, finally able to greet her without interruption.
"Especially when they get a good look at Moody's eye." George noted, setting Anna back on the ground after he'd lifted her off her feet.
"Anyway," Fred pulled Anna's attention back to him, "we already treated ourselves, but I'm treating you this weekend."
Anna eyed him suspiciously. "Treating me, how?" she asked carefully.
"I'm taking you out on a date. Maybe a fancy dinner or something. You'll have to wait and see." Fred admitted.
"You don't have to take me somewhere fancy." When Fred opened his mouth to argue, Anna hurriedly interrupted him, "We can go out to dinner and go do something fun, but you don't need to spend a bunch on me. You know me, I'm not like that."
Fred sighed and rolled his eyes, but he was smiling. "Alright, fine. I'll keep that in mind. Now, can I please have a kiss while your dad's distracted?"
Anna laughed, but obliged and stepped closer. Fred wrapped an arm around her lower back, pulled her close, and leaned down for a good, long kiss. Anna couldn't help smiling during the kiss, wrapping her arms around his neck. They were interrupted by someone coughing. They pulled away and looked at George. Anna was blushing, but Fred was smirking.
"What? I just don't want to bleach my eyes!" George joked, making the other two laugh.
"Come on. Let's go join the others before Harry leaves." Fred suggested. He draped an arm around Anna's shoulder as the trio approached the rest of their group. Anna wrapped her own arm around Fred's back as they walked. The others must've been done threatening the Dursleys by the time they reached them, because Sirius was talking to Harry now. He was saying that if they didn't hear from Harry for three days in a row, they'd send someone to check on him.
"We'll have you out of there soon, Harry." Wren promised him quietly.
"I know." Harry gave her a small smile. "Thanks."
Sirius gave Harry a quick hug, then Wren gave him one. They all laughed when Aslan tangled his little fingers in Harry's messy, black hair and gave it a tug. Anna had to step in and help Harry get free.
"I'll miss you, too, Aslan." Harry laughed, giving Aslan a small hug before giving Anna a hug.
"We'll get you out soon, and then we can all go visit the twins' shop." Anna assured him before they pulled apart. Harry grinned at her.
"Can't wait."
Harry followed the Dursleys away, and the rest of the group said their goodbyes among themselves.
"I'll owl you within the next couple days. We can have a date night or something this weekend." Fred told Anna, giving her one last hug. "And you can visit the shop."
"I can't wait." Anna grinned widely, giving him a last kiss on the cheek.
She then hugged some of the others, like Tonks, Ginny, and Hermione. Finally, she followed her parents and Remus out of the station to Apparate home.
XXX
The familiar twist of Apparation left Anna's stomach as she appeared in the streets of Diagon Alley. She looked around as she began the walk toward number 93. She saw hundreds of Ministry posters and wanted posters of Death Eaters in many of the windows she passed.
There weren't many people walking the streets, and the people Anna did see were hunched over and hurrying around to finish whatever they were doing. Finally, a large, three-story, purple-bricked shop came into view. A wide, excited smile spread over Anna's face as she took in the finished shop.
The display windows were full of products that spun, flashed, or popped. The right hand window had a large poster that read:
WHY ARE YOU WORRYING ABOUT
YOU-KNOW-WHO?
YOU SHOULD BE WORRYING ABOUT
U-NO-POO:
THE CONSTIPATION SENSATION
THAT'S GRIPPING THE NATION!
Anna laughed, both hands coming up to cover her mouth as she let her eyes travel up and down the building. It was finally hitting her.
They did it. Fred and George succeeded in making their dream a reality, despite all the naysayers and their lack of NEWTs. Despite Bagman taking all their lifesavings. They did it.
Taking a moment to collect herself, Anna finally stepped forward and opened the front door.
The shop was already crowded despite only opening for the day about an hour ago. Kids were rushing around in small groups, laughing excitedly and yelling for their parents to come see what they'd found.
"Impressive, huh?" a familiar voice made Anna look to her right. George was looking over his shoulder at her from where he was stocking a shelf of Skiving Snackboxes, wearing bright magenta robes.
"Yeah, it is." Anna approached him and gave him a hug. "But what are you wearing?" she asked when she pulled away, eyeing the robes with a mixture of amusement and disbelief.
"It's our work uniform. Why? You don't like it?" George asked in mock dismay.
Anna pursed her lips for a moment before meeting his eyes. "It's…interesting."
"That's a good thing." George pointed out.
"Whatever you say." Anna chuckled.
"Come on. Fred should be just over here. He was helping some kids find the Trick Wands." George told her, waving her after him as he wove in and out of the crowd.
Sure enough, she found Fred across the store, demonstrating the Trick Wands for a group of excited kids. Anna and George stood back and watched the master at work. Within a minute, all four kids had grabbed a Trick Wand and hurried off to beg their parents to buy it.
"Four out of four." Anna commented loud enough for Fred to hear. "Very impressive."
Fred looked up and grinned at her. "It pays to be charming." he gloated, approaching her and giving her a tight hug.
"Is that what that was?" she joked, hugging him tight for a moment before pulling back.
"So, what brings you by? You didn't mention stopping in today. And I haven't got the chance to owl you about our date."
"She just missed us so much since she saw us yesterday on the platform." George told his twin mockingly. "She couldn't stand to wait another day."
Anna rolled her eyes. "Yeah. That's it." she deadpanned before grinning. "Really, I was out and about anyway. I just put in my application to the Investigation Department at the Ministry."
"Oh, yeah, how'd your NEWTs go? Are you super smart?" George asked with a grin.
"Well, I don't know about being smart-" Anna started, only for Fred to lightly bop her on the head, "but I did get all seven of my NEWTs. So, assuming there aren't too many people with more NEWTs than me applying for the same position, I should get the job."
"Even if you didn't, you know you've got a spot here." Fred reminded her.
"Yeah, I know." Anna assured him with a grin.
"And there're plenty of other things you could do that're animal related. Like, you could breed certain animals, like hippogriffs or something." George suggested.
Anna nodded with a slight shrug. "That's true. Maybe I'll look into that down the road. Breeding Kneazles or Crups is good money and would probably be fun for me. Oh, and speaking of hippogriffs, Dumbledore's arranged for Buckbeak to go back to living with Hagrid. But they're going to change his name so no one will notice."
"You going to miss him?" Fred guessed.
Anna gave a shrug. "Yeah, but he'd be happier. He's been pretty lonely with me being in school, even though Dad and Remus would visit him everyday. But with me being at work everyday if I get the job, he'd be too lonely. So, it's for the best. And Hagrid will take good care of him."
"Yeah, he'll be fine." George agreed.
"Hey, you wanna see the Pygmy Puffs in the back?" Fred suddenly asked eagerly. "We've got a few up front for sale, but we've got a whole pen of them in the back."
"Sure." Anna agreed eagerly.
"You two head back. I'll stay up front in case Verity needs any help." George told them, heading off to talk to a customer in the WonderWitch section.
Fred took Anna's hand and lead her toward the counter, where a witch about their age with short, blonde hair was ringing up customers.
Fred paused just as the girl handed change to a witch with a young son. "Verity, this is my girlfriend, Annabelle. Anna, this is Verity." he introduced them, waving his hand back and forth.
"Hi, it's nice to meet you." Anna greeted her, offering her hand.
Verity shook her hand, grinning widely at her. "You, too. I've heard a lot about you from Mr. Weasley, here." she told her. "He said you've helped them come up with a lot of their products?"
"A few, yeah." Anna admitted with a blush.
"A few hundred, more like." Fred countered, smirking down at her. "Stop being modest. Anyway," he turned back to Verity, "I'm going to show her around the backroom. If you need any help, George is around, or just call me, okay?"
"Sure thing, Mr. Weasley." Verity nodded, turning back to a customer who was waiting patiently to pay.
Fred opened the door on the wall behind the counter and waved Anna through ahead of him. She stepped through and looked around the room. It was much larger than it realistically should have been, but that's what's so great about magic.
There was a set of large shelves along one wall, filled with labeled jars of what she guessed were the different ingredients. There were also stacks of boxes everywhere. And a long work table to her left with a few cauldrons on them.
"The Puffs are back here." Fred told her, stepping past her and leading her toward the far corner. "We put a sort of shield up around the pens to keep the fumes from the potions out, but we can still get through."
"That's brilliant." Anna told him, following behind him toward two decent-sized pens in the corner. In one pen was four Pygmy Puffs, two pink and two purple. Anna almost would've thought they were babies, they were a bit smaller than a Bludger. But then she looked into the next pen over. There were at least a dozen tiny Pygmy Puffs rolling around in the next pen, these about the size of Anna's fist.
"We decided the best way to handle Pygmy Puffs was to shrink a couple and change their colors. Then we decided to breed a few from there. They tend to have anywhere between two and five in a litter, and they grow pretty fast. These are only a week old, and they'll be full-grown in a couple weeks more. We wait until they're at least a month old before we sell them, though."
"They're so cute." Anna cooed, lowering herself to her knees to get a closer look at the babies.
"That's what we were aiming for." Fred commented, kneeling next to her. "Here," he reached into the pen and scooped a tiny, purple one off the ground. "you can hold one." He gently passed the tiny, wiggling ball of purple fluff into her hands.
She cradled it to her chest, tucking her chin to look down at it. "It's so sweet." she whispered as it peaked up at her with black eyes.
"Sometimes they nip, but overall, they're fairly friendly. And they can eat anything, so they're fairly easy to take care of." Fred explained.
Anna laughed, looking back down into the pen where the rest of the baby Pygmy Puffs, who were climbing and bouncing over each other at the gate closest to Anna in an attempt to get closer to her. "Oh my gosh, they're adorable. I bet they're super popular with the customers."
"Oh, yeah." Fred nodded his head with his eyebrows close to his hairline. "Easily one of our most popular products. We've got a long list of people who want one. Can't hardly breed them fast enough, that's why we're breeding more than one pair at a time."
Anna nodded, cuddling the baby one more time before putting it back in the pen with the others.
"You know, if you wanted to work here, you could be in charge of the Pygmy Puffs." Fred offered temptingly.
Anna tried fighting a huge grin, but couldn't quite manage that. "Tempting." she admitted.
"Okay, you could come out on the weekends or whenever you want to help us out." Fred suggested. "You don't have to work here full time, but we could always use an extra hand around here. If you want. And we'd obviously pay you and stuff."
Anna chewed her lip thoughtfully, but she already knew what she would say.
"I suppose it'd be fun." she admitted slowly, peaking over at Fred. He grinned widely at her answer.
"Great! When do you want to start?" he asked excitedly, scooting closer to her.
Anna laughed. "Well, when are we having our date night?"
"I was thinking Saturday night. Maybe you could meet me here around 5:30 or six. We close at five."
Anna hummed thoughtfully. "Well, I suppose I could come in and help for a while. Then I could leave about an hour or so before close to go home and get ready. Then, I'll meet you back here around 5:30?" she suggested.
Fred grinned. "I look forward to it."