Chapter Two
Anna woke to the sun on her face and for a moment, she didn't know where she was. She climbed out of bed, glad that there was a rug over the stone to keep the cold away. The room was different in the bright sunlight, the walls were the same grey stone as the rest of the school, but the sun brought out the brown tones in the dark wood of the desks and beds.
Pansy was still asleep in her bed, snoring lightly, her curtains open as they had been last night. Anna went to use the bathroom, then returned and began to toss her clothes out of her trunk onto the bed. Her mother had shrunk a lot of the new things she had been given so that she could bring them all along, though Anna wasn't sure what she would need so many clothes for. The clock hanging above the dormitory door said it was too early to go down for breakfast, so Anna took her time putting her things away, then went to take a shower, once her books were placed neatly on her desk.
She forgot herself a little while she showered, or at least, she forgot about her new room mates. Her old ones had been used to her singing at all hours and she forgot that these people wouldn't be used to it. She sang through a couple songs she knew from the radio over the summer, and then fell back to humming as she got out and wrapped a towel around her hair so it wouldn't drip on her clothes. Finally she went back to her room, and as soon as she opened the bathroom door, the matching one on the other side bust open and banged against the bathroom counter. Anna turned to see Blaise, hair messed from sleep, scowling at her.
"Do have to be so loud so early in the morning?" He growled and Anna blushed and looked at her feet.
"Oh shut up Blaise," Pansy called, walking up behind Anna. "You're just jealous that her voice doesn't crack the mirrors when she tries to sing."
"My voice is beautiful, thank you very much," Blaise said with a sniff.
"He sounds like a drowning cat," Pansy stage whispered to Anna, who giggled. Blaise gave a mockingly offended gasp. "Where did you learn to sing like that?" Pansy continued, ignoring him as she turned to Anna.
"I dunno," Anna said, shrugging embarrassedly. "I took some lessons a few summers ago."
"Well feel free to wake me up with singing anytime you want," Pansy said, moving past her into the bathroom. "It's much more pleasant than my alarm."
"I didn't mean to wake anyone," Anna said, frowning. "I just sing all the time, and I guess I forgot that I have new room mates now who aren't used to it."
"We'll get used to it," Pansy assured her.
"Or we could get used to sleeping," Blaise argued from his doorway.
"I don't hear Draco complaining," Pansy said, crossing her arms.
"That's because he charms his bed hangings to not let sound in," Blaise said, glaring back into his room.
"Then you can do the same," Pansy said. "Now get out, I'm going to take a shower."
"Do I have to leave?" Blaise asked, wriggling his eyebrows at her. Pansy rolled her eyes and shoved him out the door, locking it from the inside.
"Sorry for waking you," Anna said again, unwrapping her hair from her towel.
"No worries," Pansy said, pulling her pajamas off over her head. Anna blushed and turned back into her room. Pansy certainly wasn't shy about changing in front of others. Anna had gotten used to changing in her dorm when the other girls were there, but usually they were changing too and no one payed her any attention. She would never take her clothes off while another person was standing right in front of her. She would have to get used to Pansy's openness.
Nearly ten minutes later, a knock came at their door, and Anna went to pull it open. It was a little after seven, and she had been about to do a charm on her hair to dry it.
"Good morning!" Hermione Granger was on the other side of the door, standing next to Luna Lovegood.
"Hello," Anna said, smiling at them.
"Oh hi Anna," Luna said in her usual airy tone of voice. "I didn't know you were back this year."
"Hello Luna," Anna said, smiling. She had always liked her slightly younger cousin. She was unusual, and had a calming presence.
"Here," Hermione said, holding a small stack of papers out to Anna. "Professor- I mean, Headmistress McGonagall dropped these off with the prefects this morning and said to hand them out."
Anna took them and glanced over them for a moment before Luna spoke again.
"There's a list of rules," Luna said softly. "And name tags for the doors."
"The prefects have orange stars by their names so we are easy to find if you need anything," Hermione continued. "And the head boy and girl have purple stars."
"Who are the head students this year?" Anna asked, still looking over the papers.
"Ginny Weasley and Curtis Harper, from Hufflepuff," Hermione recited as though it had been a teacher asking.
"Kay," Anna answered, not really paying attention.
"Fill out the name tags and put them up on your door before breakfast please," Hermione continued. "And read over the list of rules too please. And don't forget to be on time to breakfast too."
"Right," Anna said, looking up at her with a half smile.
"Who's in your adjoining room?" Luna asked airily.
"Uh, Draco Malfoy and Blaise Zabini," Anna said. "And Pansy Parkinson is in here with me."
Hermione froze for a moment, her eyes unfocused, and Anna frowned in concern.
"Would you mind giving these to them for us?" Luna asked, holding out another small pile of papers.
"Yes of course," Anna said, watching a slight sheen of sweat develop over Hermione's face as she clutched Luna's arm. "Are you alright Hermione?"
"What?" She asked, shaking her head a couple times. "Yes, of course. I'm fine. Thank you."
With that she turned and walked farther down the hall.
"Luna?" Anna asked, looking after the other girl.
"It's not my place to tell," Luna said, her voice a little clearer than usual. "I'd imagine she doesn't have very pleasant memories of the last time she saw a Malfoy."
"Oh," Anna said, nodding, though she didn't really understand. "Okay."
Luna turned and drifted after Hermione, and Anna shut the door just as the bathroom door was opened.
"Who was that you were talking to?" Pansy asked, coming out clad in only a towel.
"Some Prefects dropped these off," Anna said, tossing the papers onto her desk. "It's a list of rules and other information. And some name tags for the door." Anna picked a quill up off her desk and dipped it in ink to write her name on one of the tags, then put the other onto Pansy's desk.
"Oh, this is so cute!" Pansy said from behind her. Anna turned to see the other girl leaning over her still unmade bed to look at some of the clothes Anna hadn't gotten around to putting away yet. She was picking up the sleeve of a blouse Anna had worn to one of her interviews last summer.
"Really?" Anna asked, surprised. Pansy was a pureblood, and had been in Slytherin, so Anna hadn't expected her to have any taste in muggle clothing. "It's muggle though," she felt the need to clarify.
"I know," Pansy said, picking it up off the bed. "We've been living as muggles all summer, and I have grown to like some of their styles."
"Living as muggles?" Anna asked, intrigued. "Why?"
"It was part of the stipulation from the ministry to keep all of us Slytherins out of Azkaban when our parents were sent," Pansy said, her voice growing serious as she dropped the blouse and went over to her own trunk. "Finish school, pay a lot of fines, gather a new appreciation for muggles by living among them, get a job, become a functioning member of society, etcetera etcetera."
"I didn't know that," Anna said, sitting on her bed as she thought. "All of you lived as muggles?"
"Well, not all of us," Pansy said, pulling on her underwear. "All the returning Slytherins did, and some of the current seventh years. And there were a few who didn't come back at the end of summer. I'm not really sure if they stayed in the muggle world or went abroad."
"Wow," Anna said, playing with the blouse material in her hands as she thought. "I had no idea."
"It's been in the papers all summer," Pansy said, chuckling a little as she pulled a black skirt on and began shuffling through her trunk for something to wear with it.
"You can borrow this if you want," Anna offered, holding the shirt out towards Pansy, who looked up at her with surprise. Anna tossed it to her, and Pansy stared at it for a moment, then pulled it on. "I guess I've been a bit out of the loop this summer," Anna continued, looking around to see where she had left her wand. "My mum dragged me off to America."
"I've never been," Pansy said softly, smoothing the shirt down over her stomach. It fit a little tightly on her, since Anna was a bit slimmer, and had smaller breasts then her new friend, but it still looked nice.
"It's… different," Anna said, smiling a little. She had liked America, though she would have liked it more if she'd had time to look around a bit, rather then running from interview to studio to photo shoot to performance. "It's nice though."
"What are these for?" Pansy asked after a moment of silence, gesturing to the second pile of papers.
"Oh, those are for the boys," Anna said. "We are supposed to give it to them."
"I'll do it," Pansy said, scooping the papers up and dancing across the the bathroom door, the handle of which was glowing green.
"Blaise!" Pansy shouted before knocking on their door. It seemed that it wouldn't open from their side, even if both locks were open.
Anna saw Draco pull the door open over Pansy's head and laughed at his murderous expression.
"Your voice makes me want to cut my ears off," he said, pushing past her. His hair was ruffled, which surprised Anna a bit. She had never seen the boy looking less than presentable, though she supposed she had never seen him so early in the day. They still had a half hour until breakfast started. Draco walked around Pansy and slammed the door to the little room with the toilet inside.
"Blaise!" Pansy called again after tossing a glare at the door. Anna laughed and spotted her wand on the counter. She picked it up and set about styling her hair, since it was mostly dry by that point. It took her only a few seconds to charm the blonde locks into loose curls, and she went back to her room to get her makeup bag, then dumped it out on the counter on her and Pansy's side of the room. She was surprised to hear the shower turn on behind her, cutting off the slightly raised tones of argument between Pansy and Blaise in the doorway to the boys room. She turned towards the shower niche before realizing that probably wasn't a good idea. The door, which looked clear when it was open, was solid when closed, and she was glad it was. She was not used to these Slytherins and their lack of modesty. She turned back to the mirror and brushed on some natural colored eyeshadow. She was almost done when the shower shut off, and she refrained from looking in the mirror as she heard the door open. Instead she leaned forward and brushed a thin layer of color onto her lips, darkening them just a little, then she stood back to look at herself to see if there was anything she had missed.
"Wow you did that really fast," Pansy said from beside her, looking at their reflection in the mirror.
"Yeah, I learned this summer," Anna said, smiling. "I wasn't given a lot of time. My mum likes to rush."
"You'll have to show me how you got your eyeliner to look like that," Pansy said.
"Sure," Anna said, smiling. She had never had a friend like Pansy before, one that was interested in makeup and clothes and girly things. Well, Anna herself hadn't really been interested in those things either until she started singing professionally. "It's actually really easy, theres a trick to it."
"If you two girls are done braiding each others hair and and painting each others nails, get out," Blaise said in a light tone from behind them. "I want to take a shower."
"Draco didn't care if we were in here," Pansy said, ignoring the order.
"Yeah well, I'm so much more modest than Drake is," Blaise said, fluttering his eyelashes at them in the mirror.
"Yeah right," Pansy said, but she turned and left, Anna following behind. "See you down at breakfast, don't be late."
"Yes mother," Blaise said, shutting the door behind them. Anna chuckled, then waited a moment for Pansy to finish drying her hair with a charm. Her dark hair hung pin straight down to her shoulders, and she didn't bother to put her school robes on over her outfit. Anna didn't grab hers either, figuring there was no need since there wouldn't be any classes that day. Pansy wrote her name on her door tag, then both girls let the room, sticking their name tags onto the door as the left. They met Draco in the hallway, and the three of them walked silently to the common room, then down to breakfast.
Anna sat at the seventh year table in the back of the great hall between Pansy and Draco. Draco remained silent for the whole meal, but Pansy chattered away at her as she ate, Anna nodding once in awhile to let Pansy know she was listening. Pansy, it seemed, had gotten a muggle job over the summer, though with the ministry rules she could have gotten a wizarding one if she had wanted. Pansy had worked at a little boutique for the summer months, a job Anna knew to be an entry level job that any muggle could work without accreditation, but Pansy was proud of her time there. She had picked up a pretty good sense of muggle fashion, and she had even learned a little bit of the slang the London muggles used, which Anna had learned throughout the last couple years of working with them to record her first album. Thankfully, Pansy didn't know anything about muggle music, so she had no idea that Anna was technically famous among the muggle singers.
Anna did notice that while Pansy and Blaise had seemed friendly enough with Draco when in the privacy of their rooms, neither of them spoke to him, and Blaise had chosen to sit on the other side of Pansy rather than the empty seat beside Draco, even though it put him directly beside a group of ex-Gryffindors who glared at him.
"Oh, here come the schedules," Pansy said at last, making Anna look up from her half empty bowl of oatmeal. "I hope we have a couple classes together. Daphne and Tracey didn't come back this year so I don't really have anyone to talk to in class anymore."
"Pans, how do you have time to eat when you never shut your mouth for more than two seconds at a time?" Blaise asked, accepting a blank paper from Flitwick, the new Deputy Headmaster. Pansy ignored him as she took her own paper and looked over her new schedule. Anna took a paper, then watched as black lines and words appeared on it at her touch, forming into her new class schedule for the year. It was very much the same as the previous year's schedule had been for her. Charms, Transfiguration, Potions, Arithmancy, Astronomy, Herbology, History of Magic, and Defense Against the Dark Arts. All the classes that required at least an Exceeds Expectations on NEWT's in order for her to become a healer, which was the profession she had chosen before the whole music thing had taken off in the muggle world. She wasn't sure why she had stayed on that path of classes, she knew she could change them, even drop a few, since it was only required for them to take five NEWT level classes to graduate, but Anna wanted to be busy. She thought it would make a good excuse to her mother about why she didn't have time to go to an interview or talk show every weekend.
"Oh, we only have three classes together," Pansy said in a disheartened voice, looking over Anna's shoulder. "What about you Blaise? Let me see."
"I hope we have no classes together," Blaise muttered as Pansy reached to grab his schedule, successfully knocking a piece of toast out of his hands as she did so.
"What about you?" Anna asked, turning to Draco. "Can I see your schedule?"
He handed it over warily, as though he still expected her to curse him, as he had when they had begun talking on the train. She looked it over, then chuckled.
"Are you studying to be a healer?" She asked, looking over his identical schedule of classes.
"No," he said quietly, shrugging a little. "Potion brewer."
"Well it seems as though Potion Brewers and Healers have to study all the same subjects," Anna said, smiling a little as she handed his schedule back and set hers down next to it. He sighed, but didn't say anything else.
"Want to walk around and find the new classrooms?" Pansy asked, drawing Anna's attention back to her.
"Sure," Anna said, folding her schedule in half. She also wanted to find out if the old music rooms that had previously been on the fourth floor were still there. The instruments had been covered in dust, and in bad repair when Anna had first found them in her third year, but with a little practice she had been able to perform the spells to fix them and clean the room, and she had gone back any time she was feeling sad or lonely, or even stressed. Her favorite instrument had been the old piano, because she knew how to play it already, but after messing around with some of the other instruments, she had taught herself how to play quite a few of them.
It seemed that a lot of other students had the same idea as Pansy. The halls were crowded, and a little loud, as people walked around, finding their new classrooms or new parts of the castle. Many of the first years were being led around by older students, something that Anna wished had been done for her when she had been a first year.
"Are you taking Divination?" Pansy asked as they passed a classroom on the first floor.
"No," Anna said. "I took it up to fifth year, but it's kinda… i dunno. It didn't seem worth continuing," Anna said, shrugging.
"I agree, it's completely useless," Pansy said.
"But then why have you signed up for it?" Anna asked, frowning at the other girls schedule.
"Well, its really easy to get a good grade in it," Pansy said, smiling wryly. "And," she leaned in closer and lowered her voice. "Firenze is so nice to look at."
Anna laughed outright at that. She had only taken Divination with him for part of her fourth year, when he had replaced Trelawney, but she had to agree with Pansy. The centaur had a very sculpted chest and his human half was quite good looking.
"Oh, there's Charms," Pansy pointed out as they topped the stairs to the second floor. "I wonder why they moved it down here?"
"No idea," Anna said, shrugging. "They moved Arithmancy down here too." Both of those subjects had previously been on the fifth floor.
"Do you think Potions is still in the dungeons?" Anna asked as they climbed up to the third floor.
"Yeah," Pansy said, peering down at her schedule. "It says that Potions, Astronomy, Herbology, and Transfiguration will be in the same classrooms they used to be in."
"Darn," Anna muttered under her breath. "I hate the dungeons. They are always cold."
"Professor Snape said that Potions has always been in the dungeons so that when the idiot Gryffindors mess up their brewing the rest of the school would be relatively safe," Pansy said, giggling a little. Anna had to laugh at that. Professor Snape's hatred of the Gryffindors had poured over into all of his classes, even when they didn't contain any members from said house. The Ravenclaws had always had Potions with the Hufflepuffs, and there had been many lessons where Professor Snape made nasty comments about the Gryffindors.
"I wonder who is taking Defense this year," Anna commented, changing to subject. "I forgot to look at breakfast to see if there were any new professors this year."
"Well we have that class together, first thing tomorrow," Pansy said, passing by the new History of Magic classroom on the third floor as they climbed up a level. "I guess we'll see then. Oh, what's this?"
Pansy had topped the stairs to the fourth floor and peered into a darkened classroom. This room, unlike the others they had passed, was not set up with rows of desks facing the front of the room, ready for a lecture. This room, instead, had what looked like a very thick padding covering the floor, and various low writing desks placed along the walls.
"Weird," Anna said, trying to turn the door handle, but it was locked.
"Thats the new Defense room," A voice called out behind them, and both girls turned to look at the newcomer.
"Are you just following us around now Blaise?" Pansy asked, hands on her hips.
"Not even a little," he replied, grinning at them. "I just happened to be going back upstairs when I heard your ever lovely voice and came to investigate. Pansy flipped him off and turned to walk further down the hallway away from him. Blaise didn't seem bothered by her actions, and came to walk beside Anna as they caught up to Pansy.
"Transfiguration and Runes are up on the sixth floor," Blaise said as they climbed the stairs.
"I thought you said you were going back to the common room," Pansy said, glancing at him out of the corner of her eye.
"I was," Blaise said.
"Then how do you know what classrooms are on the sixth floor?" Pansy asked, topping the stairs again as she went to see if he was right.
"It says on our schedules," he said, rolling his eyes. "If you knew how to read you would know that instead of hunting them all down individually."
"I just wanted to see where they were," Pansy said, huffing as they passed the sign that stated that the Transfiguration classroom was indeed on this floor.
"Yes, because 'Sixth floor, south-west corner' is too difficult to figure out from just reading it," Blaise said.
"You don't have to be here you know," Pansy said, turning to face him, her face drawn into a scowl. "You can go hang out in your room and leave us be."
"Ah, well," Blaise began, rubbing the back of his neck and looking sheepish. "I'd rather not. Draco is there at the moment."
"Oh," Pansy said shortly, giving him an understanding look before turning to continue down the hall.
"Do you and Draco not get along?" Anna asked, confused by the interaction. Blaise seemed like he got along with nearly everyone.
"No, we get along fine," Blaise said, shrugging.
"Then why…" Anna began, but trailed off as she remembered what Draco had said on the train. After the war, no one wanted to be seen associating with Draco's family.
"It's not that I dislike Draco," Blaise said, feeling there was a bit of explanation needed. "I was glad when his name was drawn to room with me, at least I knew I'd get along with him. It's just that all of us are watched so closely now, it would look bad if… well, it's just a complicated situation."
"I understand," Anna said, nodding. "It would look bad to the public if people already under Ministry suspicion began to spend a lot of time alone together."
"Pretty much," Pansy said, looking into another classroom. This hall was nearly empty of people, there was just a small group of second years loitering near the end of it. Anna's little group had slowed their walking to remain out of earshot.
"But you didn't mind sitting near him at breakfast?" Anna asked, confused.
"Well, you were there," Blaise said. "You don't have any previous association with any of us."
"So basically I'm a buffer to keep you lot out of trouble?" Anna asked, her mouth twitching up into a half smile.
"Glad you understand," Blaise said, giving her a charming smile as they climbed up to the seventh floor. The only classes on this floor were Astronomy, in the south tower, and Divination with Trelawney, in the east tower, both in the same places they had been before, so they didn't go looking for them.
"That's not the only reason we like you," Pansy said, glancing in the unused classrooms in the south hall where they had come up. "Nearly anyone else would have thrown a fit about being roomed with three Slytherins. You didn't even make a single comment."
"Plus we are hoping you will let us cheat off you for tests," Blaise added jokingly. Anna smiled, liking his constant need to lighten a conversation.
"Just because I was in Ravenclaw doesn't mean I'm really smart," Anna said. "It just means that I'm open minded and like to learn. Cheating off me wouldn't get you perfect grades, and I'm not going to hate you all just because you came from Slytherin. Hating people takes so much energy, I don't waste that on just anybody, you have to earn it first."
Blaise laughed at that, draping an arm over her shoulders as they walked. Anna was coming to learn that this over friendly behavior was normal for him, so she didn't shrug his arm off her. Pansy gave her a genuine smile, then glanced into another door rather than continue the conversation.
"Oh, this wasn't here before was it?" She asked, pushing the door in. The three of them walked inside, and Blaise sneezed at the slight amount of dust in the room, but Anna let out an excited 'Oh!' as she looked into the room. The walls were lined with instruments on stands, and against the back wall, a piano, which she made a beeline for.
"This room used to be down on the fourth floor, I'm glad they didn't get rid of it," Anna explained, running a hand over the dusty keys. She pulled out her wand and cleared the dust from the room, then sat down on the old piano bench.
"What is this?" She turned to see what Pansy was looking at, then stood from the bench to take the guitar from the wall.
"It's an acoustic guitar," Anna explained, strumming a finger over the strings, then wincing. "And it's really out of tune." She began plucking the stings individually as she turned the pegs to tighten them.
"Can you play it?" Blaise asked, looking at the instrument in suspicion.
"Yes," Anna said, grinning as she brushed over the now tuned cords. "Guitar and piano are my best instruments, but I practically lived in the music room since I found it in third year, so I can play a lot of these others too."
"Why do they even have these here?" Pansy asked, prodding a couple piano keys. At least that instrument still seemed to be in key. "I've never heard of music classes here."
"They had them back in the early 1900's, but they stopped sometime in the 50's," Anna said. She had asked Professor Flitwick, the head of her old house, if it was alright for her to use the instruments, and he had told her a bit about the history of the place. She strummed out a few cords on the instrument in her hands, then hung it back on the wall. "There were a few other Ravenclaw's who played too. And a girl in Hufflepuff who left school in my fourth year used to come here too. They probably kept them so that the few people who want to can use them."
"What's the point?" Pansy asked, frowning as the piano gave a loud resounding twang as she pushed the keys.
"For fun," Anna said, shrugging. "I don't really find quidditch fun to watch, so I come here instead."
"I thought Ravenclaws did homework for fun," Blaise commented, studying an upright base that he had accidentally bumped into.
"I thought Slytherins were all petty and only did things that benefit them personally," Anna countered, siting on the bench next to Pansy.
"Oh but we are," Blaise said, grinning as he rested his elbows on the back of the piano.
"Speak for yourself," Pansy said with a sniff. Anna pushed down a couple keys, playing through a scale as the two argued. She had missed the piano, and her fingers itched to play, but she didn't want to be rude and ditch Pansy and Blaise. She hadn't missed the looks of distrust and anger that had been sent at them throughout breakfast.
"I have a list of a hundred things I've seen you do that were petty on the tip of my tongue," Blaise argued back. "For example, I know it was you that put itching powder in Astoria's uniform right after Christmas last year."
"She deserved that," pansy said, scowling at him. "And you can't prove it was me." Anna began to play through the first calming song that came to mind, Pachelbel's Cannon in D major, better known as the wedding march song. Pachelbel, along with Mozart and many other famous musicians, had been wizard's who's music had been adopted by muggles. This was one of the first songs Anna had learned by heart on piano, because her mother had liked to volunteer to have her play at wedding. Anything to show off to others how musically gifted her daughter was.
Anna tuned out the argument that had sprung up between her two companions and played through the entire song, then shifted into Claire de Lune. This one she had memorized because her mother liked it, even though it came from a muggle musician. Pansy and Blaise had fallen silent to listen, though Anna didn't notice. She had emptied her mind, as she usually did while playing. This was her way of calming down, de-stressing, and though she wasn't uptight or stressed at the moment, it still relaxed her significantly.
After Claire de Lune she began Moonlight Sonata, because it was her favorite one to play.
"Oh, I've heard that one before!" Pansy said, and Anna looked up. She had forgotten she wasn't alone. Pansy had stood at some point, giving Anna better reach of all the keys. She didn't stop playing, though she did falter a little.
"Hush woman," Blaise hissed at her, nudging her in the side.
"Mozart was a wizard," Anna said, a small smile on her lips as she continued to play. "The muggles call this kind of music 'Classical' so if you were raised in a traditional pureblood family, you've probably heard it at parties."
"How would you know that?" Pansy asked, though her voice wasn't argumentative. She leaned against the side of the piano, watching Anna's fingers flit over the keys. Anna looked back down at her hands with a smile. It seemed that music calmed more than just her.
"I had a traditional pureblood upbringing until my father passed away three years ago," Anna explained. "My mother didn't host gatherings, but we went to quite a few of them when I was young. In fact, I've probably met both of you before, though I don't remember. I usually begged off going out in favor of staying home to play piano. And I stopped going altogether when I was ten."
"My mother never hosted parties either," Blaise commented as the song came to an end. "She attended all of them though. I usually didn't go. That song does sound familiar though." Anna started in on another Mozart song, one she assumed they would know, as she remembered it from parties.
"Oh I know this one!" Pansy squealed in excitement.
"Can't you speak without squeaking?" Blaise asked with a sigh.
"Shut up," Pansy said. "Lets dance."
"No way in hell," Blaise said, frowning at her. "The last time I danced with you, you stepped on my foot at least ten times."
"I was fourteen," Pansy said, huffing. "And I did that on purpose." She held out a hand, and Blaise sighed, but took it. Anna watched with a smile as the two of them fell into a slow waltz to the music. Anna herself knew the steps because her father had thought it was something she would need to know if she were going to integrate herself into traditional wizarding society. He hadn't been a pureblood supremacist as many others had been, but he liked tradition, and her mother agreed, so Anna had learned all the dances, and how to properly conduct herself in various situations.
After her father had died, her mother had fallen into a depression. Anna had begun to play music and sing around the house as a way to help her mother cheer up a little. Her mother had latched on to the music, and thus had been born Anna's career in the muggle world.
She was brought out of her thoughts by Pansy's laugh as Blaise gave her a particularly overenthusiastic twirl. Anna smiled, watching their seemingly carefree faces. She might have thought that the war hadn't affected them at all if she hadn't seen Pansy's sad expression during their earlier serious conversation.
"Where did you learn to play?" A voice asked from the doorway, and Blaise and Pansy immediately stopped dancing and traded looks. Anna glanced to her side, at the newcomer, but didn't stop playing.
"I taught myself mostly," Anna replied to Ginny. The two were second cousins, but Anna had never before talked to the girl. Ginny stayed by the doorway to the room, and Blaise and Pansy made their way back to the piano, trying to stay out of the way.
"I think its wonderful," Ginny said, smiling at last as she walked further into the room. "I'd love to play, but I have no idea how."
"It's a little difficult to pick up," Anna said, finishing off the song. "I could teach you if you'd like."
"I'm not sure I'd have time to learn between classes and head girl duties," Ginny admitted, coming to a stop on the opposite side of the piano as the two Slytherins, who were eying her suspiciously now. Anna smiled up at them all, not letting the tension affect her.
"Pansy, Blaise, have you met my cousin Ginny Weasley?" Anna asked, making introductions, though she knew they probably knew each other already. "Ginny, these are my friends Pansy Parkinson and Blaise Zabini."
"Cousin?" Ginny asked at the same time as Blaise. Anna nearly laughed as they both looked at the other in confusion.
"Oh, right," Anna said, looking over to Ginny. "We haven't actually met before. My dad was Adrian Prewett, whom I believe was your mother's cousin. So we are second cousins."
"Really?" Ginny asked, finally dropping her cautious attitude. "I thought I'd met all my cousins."
"My dad once said we had over a hundred cousins on his side of the family," Anna said with a chuckle. "So it's not surprising."
"He was right," Ginny commented with a laugh.
"Um, Anna, we are going to go back to the common room," Pansy said after a moment's pause. Anna could tell the two Slytherins were uncomfortable, and she could also see the look of distaste Ginny threw at the other girl.
"Oh, I'll come with," Anna said, standing and dusting off her pants. "It was nice to meet you Ginny."
The three of them left the room, heading back along the hall in silence.
"So why does Ginny hate you?" Anna asked when they were in an empty part of the hall. Pansy coughed in surprise.
"Pansy offered up the Boy Wonder at the start of the last battle," Blaise commented as though he were talking about the weather. "She weasel and Boy Wonder have been together for months now."
"Oh right, I remember that," Anna said, chuckling at Blaise's nicknames.
"Can we not talk about this please?" Pansy asked as the reached the portrait of the two girls playing on a field.
"Dittany," Anna said, then walked through the doorway. "Sorry for bringing it up," she said as they turned to go into the right dorm hall where their room was.
"Look who's across the hall from us," Blaise pointed out, pushing the door labeled 4 open and walking inside. Pansy and Anna looked at where he pointed, and Pansy groaned quietly. It seemed as though Ginny and Hermione's room was right across from theirs. And across from the girls door, Ron Weasley and Harry Potter's name tags flashed in the hall light.
Anna shrugged and pushed her own door open. Hopefully the four Gryffindors wouldn't run into Anna's roommates too often. She really didn't want to get into the middle of anything.
"I'm going to take a nap," Anna said, plopping down onto her bed, which still had a few articles of clothing on it from that morning.
"I'm going to read through this rule list," Pansy said, sitting on her desk and grabbing the papers Anna had tossed there earlier.
"Are you going to follow any of the rules?" Anna asked, her voice muffled a bit by her pillow.
"Of course not," Pansy said, flipping her hair over her shoulder. "But I need to get a general idea of them so I will at least know to be on the lookout while breaking them."
Anna chuckled, but didn't comment.