Anna vaguely realized that her mouth was hanging open and she was tightly gripping his hand. 'Oh my god' was all she could think. Her voice seemed to fail her completely.
"Are you alright?" he asked her as he firmly extricated his hand from her grip.
"Y-you're – I mean, It's – I mean" she stammered. "Harry Potter" she finally managed to squeak out.
He blushed and looked around the hall. They were still alone. "Uh, yes" he said, "Harry Potter."
"Oh my god" she finally said out loud. Her brain began nominal function again. "So, what brings you to Hogwarts today?"
"I usually come to watch the Quidditch final match" he said, "Catch up with happenings at the school, you know."
Anna laughed – a high pitched, nervous laugh. 'Where is that coming from?' she wondered. "Oh, yeah, sure!" she exclaimed, loudly as if this was the most amazing thing anyone had said to her.
Harry began to back away from her. "Well, I'd better go now. More people to talk to today. It was nice to meet you" he said and walked away.
"Ok, bye!" she called after him.
As he turned the corner, Draco returned with Minerva. Anna fell back against the wall and smacked her palm against her face. "Oh no" she groaned.
"Problems Anna?" Minerva asked.
She spoke from behind her hand. "Oh god. I just met Harry Potter and I behaved like a total arse" she groaned again. "Maybe I'll just go throw myself in the lake".
Draco sneered, "Oh, don't worry. The Great Potter is used to people making arses of themselves around him. I'm sure he barely noticed you." He spun on his heel and walked away.
"What's his problem?" Anna asked her aunt.
"I would imagine being near Mr. Potter again brings up some not so pleasant memories for Professor Malfoy" he aunt told her. "Hearing someone go so gaga for him again after all these years probably doesn't help matters either" Minerva said, giving Anna a reproachful look.
"I am sorry Aunt Minerva, I just couldn't help it!" Anna said.
"Well, Mr. Potter rarely makes appearances at school, so it's doubtful it will happen again. So, what seems to be the problem with your door?"
Minerva helped Anna reset her password, but even with her questioning they still were no closer to figuring out who locked Anna out of her chambers. Minerva recommended a daily password change.
A few weeks later, Anna decided to do some reading up on the Magical world. Neville recommended she begin with "Hogwarts: A History". She took a copy to the library one Friday night so there would be someone around to ask when she had questions. She found the history of the founders fascinating. She lit candles around the reading nook she had claimed and kept reading long after the last student left the library.
Hours later, Draco Malfoy was prowling around the castle. Once again, his thoughts would not slow down enough to let him sleep. How many years was this going to continue? he wondered. Would he ever be able to put the past in the past?
Draco saw the lights in the library and rushed in, thinking he was going to catch students sneaking about after hours. Instead, he found Professor Jacobs, slumped in a chair, surrounded by low burning candles, fast asleep with a book in her hands. He gently shook her shoulder. "Anna" he said.
She jerked awake and looked around, confused for a moment. She saw who had woken her.
"Professor Malfoy" she began, stretching her arms above her head and yawning. "Oh, sorry" she yawned again "I guess I fell asleep. What time is it?" she asked.
"Draco" he said.
"What time is Draco?" she asked, still confused from her nap.
"No, please call me Draco" he said. "It's around 3 am."
"Oh, ok" Anna said, finally waking all the way. "So why are you skulking about the library in the middle of the night?"
"Insomnia" he replied. "I'll walk you back to your chambers" he offered.
"Insomnia?" she asked. "I have just the cure for that" she said.
"Really?" the potions professor sounded doubtful.
"Yup. I can do a little potion brewing myself. Where is the kitchen?"
Draco led Anna to the kitchens of Hogwarts. As she searched for her potion ingredients she apologized to Draco. Although they were not exactly friendly, ever since the Quidditch final, he had been even colder to her than before.
"I have to apologize if I offended or hurt you the day of the Qudditch final. I am so new to this world. Trying to make sense of it all from the little bit of information I have is so difficult. I am still finding my way."
Draco looked at her, and realized that she had a good point. This whole world was new to her and she couldn't expected to understand all the nuances, all the old hurts and prejudices, in such a short time. And she really was trying.
"Accepted and understood" he said. "What else do you need for your 'potion'?"
"What's youse doing in my kitchenes?" a sharp, gravelly voiced asked.
Anna whirled around to see who had spoken. What she saw appeared to be a large, hairless rat with enormous ears, standing on two legs, wearing some type of filthy sack. She dropped the pot she had been holding, screamed and tried to climb up Draco's back.
"WHAT IS THAT!?" she screeched and pointed.
"What?! WHAT!?" the rat thing looked behind itself, trying to find the thing that terrified Anna.
Draco tried to pry Anna's hands from his throat.
"Anna!" he groaned, "Let go of me! It's a house elf!" he managed to grunt loud enough for her to hear.
She loosened the grip on his throat, but still clung behind him.
"A house elf?" she said, uncertainly. She had heard of them, read about them, and knew they were in the castle, but this was her first time actually seeing one.
"Like Dobby?" she asked.
The creature looked as offended as a giant rat could. "Most certainly NOT like Dobby! Free elves's indeed. RUBBISH! " he said and spat on the floor. "I's is Hoggle. I is a proud house elf, lives to serves I do. Hoggle is of the proud house elves's line serving Hogwarts five hundredes years I's is. Why's is the master and mistress in the kitchenes in the middle of the night?"
Anna gaped at the house elf. Draco spoke up. "Professor Jacobs was just going to brew a sleeping potion."
"Potionses? Classroom in the dungeon for potionses brewing. Kitchenses for cooking!" Hoggle seemed appalled at the idea of brewing a potion in the kitchen.
Anna finally found her voice again. "Uh, I guess it's Muggle tradition to brew in the kitchen. Uh, kitchenses." she said.
Hoggle eyed her suspiciously, but acquiesced to her strange request.
"What does the mistress be needing for her potion?" he asked.
"Milk, sugar and some nutmeg" she said as she picked up the pan she had dropped. Hoggle fetched her the ingredients and turned to leave.
"Just leaves the potion ingredients out. Elveses will clean in the morning" he said as he left. Anna though she heard him mutter on his way out, something about kitchenses and brewing.
She mixed the ingredients and heated them to steaming, then poured mugs for them both. Draco sniffed the concoction and wrinkled his nose.
"Oh, come on potions professor!" she said. "It cannot be any worse that some of the brews I have smelled coming from the potions classroom! Bottoms up!"