I'm so sorry this took so long. I've just been dealing with a lot of school work these last few weeks and that, along with my recent minor depression and a few self harm and suicidal thoughts, was enough to delay this chapter so much. I'm doing much better now but I have my mind set on reaching certain school results in these last two months so that I can get into the university I so desperately want to get into so I don't know when I'll be able to update. I'll do it as often as I can but please forgive me if it takes a while. It's not because I don't want to but because I can't. Whenever I can find time to write and update I will.

Anna couldn't help it. She was glad to be back at Hogwarts, the place never ceased to amaze her and bring a spark of happiness to he heart, she was interested in the classes and her free time was spent as efficiently as possible but this... THIS. Anna ground her teeth so loudly she could swear Draco next to he could hear her. Her cousin had been right when he had claimed Lockhart to be an idiot, though she would rather say he was a tragic waste of oxygen. The first lesson had been more than disappointing, it had been infuriating. She hadn't read the book any further than the first page before deciding that there was no better way to waste her time and throw away part of her intelligence, thus she had also chosen to further ignore anything he had to say... until he had dared give them a quiz on the first day about himself. And then the fool looked at her as if he was expecting her to swoon at him like the rest of the pathetic little girls. She had made it very clear to Pansy, Daphne and Millicent that if they wanted to swoon they better do it somewhere where she wouldn't see them or she would make them regret it.

So that was why Anna was now pointedly ignoring anything and everything Lockhart had to say and reading 'Bloodlines of the Past' very attentively. With Draco huffing every two seconds to her right, Theo making sarcastic comments when Lockhart said something particularly stupid and Blaise mumbling curses to himself behind her she had been forced to deepen herself in the book to a point where she barely registered anything that was not in the thick, old tome in her hands.

That is, until she felt Draco tugging at her arm hard enough to almost pull her from her seat in the back of the class. She looked up at him and saw that he was standing with his bag in his hands, behind him were the other Slytherins who were looking at her alarmed, as if they wanted to run but were waiting for her. She turned to Theo, who held her bag in his hands. Loud yelling was all around her, making her even more confused.

"Wha-?"

She was cut off as her book was yanked out of her hands. Her head snapped forwards and her eyes zeroed in on a small blue creature that was holding her book up, preparing to rip it apart. A pixie, a Cornish pixie. Anna pursed her lips in displeasure as the chaos of the classroom registered, along with Lockhart in his balcony wrestling with a pixie for a framed picture of himself. No one other than the Slytherins was paying any attention to her.

Her wand was out in a second and pointed directly at the pixie holding her book. Her lips formed the word "Ferveo" and she watched with fascination as the pixie dropped the book and fell to her desk, writhing as its tiny body turned to ash from the inside out. Immediately the Slytherins were quiet and she simply grabbed her book and walked out of the classroom, her friends at her heels. She didn't say anything to them, yet they were quiet, sensing her discomfort. That curse. She learned it recently but she had never considered truly using it on a defenceless being that was only doing what was in its nature to do. Why had she reacted so... cruelly? Was it her nature to curse others as much as it was the pixie's nature to cause chaos, or was it... the magic that wasn't hers? It would be easy to blame the magic, but what if it was her? What if she was more like her mother than she thought? Disgust formed in the pit of her stomach. She may not care about many things, she may be harsh and interested in dark things, she may be planning something unimaginable, but she didn't believe in useless cruelty. Yet that was what she had just done.

Anna bit her lip as she led the others back to the Slytherin Dungeon.

Anna put down her quill and left her essay to dry. Her grey eyes roamed over the table to the other side where Theo sat. His brown hair hung losely over his forehead, casting shadows over his pale skin, his sharp chin and straight nose. Brown eyes were downcast as his hand moved over the parchment writing his charms essay, his brow was furrowed slightly in concentration and he was biting his lower lip slightly. She couldn't help but smile slightly as she watched him but this was wiped away in alarm as the portal to the dungeon swung open and the Quidditch team strode in, laughing and chattering loudly, too loudly. Anna scowled as Draco strode over to them, drawing the team along with him. Of course uncle Lucius had gotten Draco into the team; Draco had pestered him for weeks during the summer and Lucius had decided that a 'simple' contribution to the team would help remind them where their bread was buttered. Seven Nimbus 2001s weren't Anna's idea of simple but she was getting used to it.

"You'll never guess what happened!" Draco exclaimed sat he sat down next to her, leaving his team mates to stand except for Marcus Flint -the son of a Death Eater she had met, thus someone who knew her identity- who sat next to Theo, nodding at him respectfully before turning back to Draco and her. Draco, for his part, didn't give Anna a chance to guess as he continued without taking time to breathe. "Weasley cursed himself!"

Anna raised a brow. Alright, that was slightly amusing but more exasperating that amusing. "How did he manage that?"

"I called Granger a mudblood and he, like the blood traitor he is, stepped in to defend her. He wanted me to 'eat slugs'" His fingers curled in quotation marks "But it backfired and he ended up doing it."

Anna frowned. "How does that work?"

"His wand was broken." Marcus put in. "Malfunctioning, probably because it was broken down the middle and mended with tape. They probably don't have enough money to pay for a new one." He snickered.

She nodded. "Interesting..." She stood and packed her things. "I'm going to the library. You wouldn't have had time to finish all your homework for tomorrow Draco," She put a hand on his shoulder and took out a scroll. "I did your Transfiguration for you. Coming, Theo?"

Theo nodded and started packing up. "Getting too loud to work properly here. See you all later."

Before she could walk away Draco grabbed her wrist and pulled her close. "Thanks."

She could smell the sweat through his Quidditch gear, making her nose itch, but she smiled and whispered: "That's what family's for, right?"

He smiled at her and she walked away with Theo next to her, heading to the library. They left the common room and headed out of the dungeons. The first stairs they took left them stranded on the first floor so they had to make their way through the packed corridors to the next flight of stairs some hallways away, not that they minded, it was a beautiful day and the sun shone through the windows.

As they walked Anna started to feel slightly off, a nagging in the back of her head, a tingling her chest, it started simple, but the further they walked the thicker the air became and the more her mouth dried. It felt like there was a fog in her mind, clouding her judgement, but on the other hand, she had never seen more clearly, she had never before heard every voice around her instead of a mixed buzzing and she could smell all sorts of things; perfumes, sweat, potion vapours... It got worse. She stopped consciously moving her legs, she tried to freeze, fall to the ground, anything, but her body kept walking towards the library in the same pace as if nothing was off. It didn't hurt but her heart beat wildly in fear as she lost control of her body.

And then it started lessening and she stood still. Theo stopped next to her, a puzzled look on his face. She knew her face showed utter panic. Her head turned wildly. There must have been something that caused that. What was it? Her eyes snapped from painting to painting, door to door, student to student. She had seen them all before, the paintings were all familiar, she walked through this corridor often last year, though admittedly less after that run in with Myrtle in the bathroom but still, this had never happened before. What was it?

"-nna? Anna?" Theo's voice made her head snap back to him. "Are you alright?"

She swallowed and closed her eyes. It was gone now, all gone. She closed her hands into fists and loosened them again. Her eyes opened, her lips curled into a smile that fooled no one and she answered.

"Perfectly fine."

He didn't believe her.

Anna chuckled at Daphne's complaints. The pretty blonde was quite upset about having to wear mufflers on her ears since it would ruin the hairdo Anna had helped with. To be completely honest, Anna had quite enjoyed herself. It was the first time she had done something as... childish as that, it was the first time she had actually liked anyone enough, but she liked Daphne. She, along with Pansy and Millicent, no longer annoyed her... mostly. Nowadays she was quite fond of them. There was nothing wrong with having friends and doing things that 12 year old children would normally do; she was 12 after all. At that she passed a finger over the bracelet on her right wrist. She rarely took it off. It looked like silver vines with tiny emerald leaves and mother of pearl buds. Aunt Narcissa said it had once belonged to her father's mother who had been the first daughter of the Selwyns at the time, though she was now buried in the Lestrange crypts.

At professor Sprout's order, Anna pulled on her gloves and covered her ears with the earmuffs, then she turned to look as the robust woman pulled a Mandrake from its pot. Its cry barely registered through the thick fur around her hears but, to most of the Slytherins' amusement, Longbottom passed out. His fellow Gryffindors cast him slight annoyed looks but Sprout waved it off, telling them to let him sleep.

Anna got to work on automatic pilot, her eyes never leaving Longbottom's pudgy face, pale against the dark floor a few spots to her right. Het fingers curled around the Madrake's stems and she pulled, ripping the baby-like plant out of the earth. She didn't even look at it before dumping it in a new, larger pot full of fresh earth. Hurriedly she covered it again and took a few steps back, leaning against the glass and looked at Sproud without really seeing her, pretending to listen to whatever she was explaining. Her thoughts stayed with the fat little Gryffindor.

How had he gotten into that House? Maybe it was a family thing, but she couldn't say for sure, he didn't look or act any braver than a mouse. What was a mouse to a brave lion? Aunt Narcissa said the Longbottom boy lived with his grandmother, a woman not to be underestimated. Apparently the old woman was powerful and... brave. There it was again. Brave. The two aurors had been brave too, and Mother, Father, uncle Rabastan and a few others had tortured them into insanity. Bellatrix was vicious, so were the others but Bellatrix... Anna had read about her exploits. Mostly from questionably partial sources but even so, there had to be a core of truth and she didn't doubt that her parents had done this to... Neville. Would he have been different if his parents had raised him? Would he be a strong lion? Or would he still be a timid mouse that fainted at a Mandrake's cry? She didn't doubt he would be brave, as the rest of the Longbottoms were. Maybe he would grow to be brave yet. But did that mean that she would be vicious like her parents? That she would have been that way from the beginning if she'd grown up with them? Would she be as heartless as them? She wasn't heartless now, but Longbottom wasn't brave now.

She didn't hate Longbottom. If anything, she avoided him because she felt guilty. Her parents had tortured his into insanity, sure they were in Azkaban now but not because of his parents, rather because they had been betrayed. She didn't blame him, she blamed them. What they did was... might have been justified in her eyes. She had nothing against torture if it was on someone that deserved it, if something could be gained by it, but it must have become obvious that they didn't known anything. Yet they kept going. Sometimes, when she allowed herself to think about it, it repulsed her and she vowed to never do that to anyone but then she remembered the orphanage and Karkaroff and Dumbledore and suddenly it didn't seem too bad anymore.

She took off her mufflers when she registered Sprout doing it and then she turned to the door. Before leaving she heard Draco's voice, loud, arrogant, mean. Anna looked back at him. He was laughing at Longbottom, mocking him. Longbottom seemed to shrink under everyone's gaze, but that was all they were, gazes. Nobody said anything to stop Draco, in fact, the other Slytherings laughed with him. In the corner of her eyes she saw Potter striding forwards but she acted before he could say anything.

"Leave him alone, Draco."

Draco turned to look at her with wide eyes. The rest of the Slytherins looked shocked to say the least. She had contradicted Draco Malfoy. Outside of the Slytherin Dungeon. Anna felt everyone's eyes, including Longbottom and Sprout's, staring at her, but she kept her eyes fixed on Draco's identical ones.

"He's a mouse in the lions' den, he has enough of a hard time as it is. Don't waste your time in pushing something that will fall anyway." With that the turned and met emerald eyes before leaving.

Draco forgave her, after quite a bit of bribing, and no one mentioned the Longbottom Incident again. She didn't know what came over her, but for a second there, the gratefulness in Longbottom's eyes had warmed her heart before she forcefully stamped it out. Theo had asked her about it but she had shrugged and quite honestly told him that she knew very little about what had happened. Now everyone was happy and Draco was particularly happy because this would be their first Halloween feast together; she had been in the hospital last year. Looking back she couldn't help but marvel at how much things had changed in a single year.

Anna nearly ran through the corridors as she hurried to the Great Hall. She had gotten distracted by a book on mind magic and almost forgotten about the feast. Now that was something that Draco wouldn't forgive. She cursed softly as she hurried, ignoring the calls from the paintings about not running in the corridors. Couldn't they see she was in a hurry? Merlin.

In her rush she didn't notice a flash of red rounding the corner at the same time as her and they collided, sending both her and whoever she had crashed into flying.

"Oh, f- sorry." Anna crouched and started separating her belongings from whoever it was' belongings.

"No, no it's fine." A soft feminine voice sounded in front of her and Anna's head shot up.

It was a small girl wearing Gryffindor robes. Her hair was as red as her tie and she had brown eyes and a handful of freckles spread over her face, mainly over her nose. Weasley.

Anna pursed her lips but didn't say anything else as she reached out towards the last of the girl's belongings. As soon as her fingers grazed the soft black cover a shock went through her body making her hand recoil into her chest. The air around the book hummed with magic and she could feel her core struggling against the potion's barrier. She knew this magic.

Anna looked up and opened her mouth to say something but before any sound came out the Weasley girl had grabbed all her things, including the little black book, and ran off, leaving Anna kneeling on the ground, her head buzzing.

It took a few seconds for Anna to compose herself and remember about the feast. A part of her wanted to abandon the feast and go after Weasley but she didn't know how much of that part was herself so she decided to just go to Draco. She waved her wand and shrunk her belongings, another twitch of her wrist and they were in her pockets. Once more in a hurry, she ran to the Great Hall.

When she got there, the feasting had already begun but Draco had saved her a seat.

"Sorry." She mumbled as she sat down.

"It's fine, though for a second there I was worried." He answered, offering her some duck in sweet plum sauce.

She smiled in gratitude and served herself a bit. Dinner was delicious as always, though with more creative food and huge towering pies and cakes with decorations made of sugar forming monsters and other creatures of the night. Anna ate until she was full and then ate some more, laughing with her friends. She was happier than she would normally have been, and she knew it. She was still reeling from the shock of magic but she was happy... maybe not happy and just incredibly relieved. She had another chance.

With fondness bubbling in her stomach she walked beside Draco back to the Slytherin Dungeon, holding his hand. He was chattering loudly with the others while she just smiled contentedly. They were in a mass of students, not just Slytherins, seeing as the way to all the common rooms split up some ways further away. Anna and her friends just let themselves be led by the current until everyone stood still. There was shouting up ahead and from behind her she could tell the teachers were pushing their way past the students.

The smile slipped off her face as she immediately sobered up and pushed her way through the crowd of older -mostly- Slytherins blocking her way. Draco and the others quickly followed. When she got to the front of the crowd Anna realised what the commotion was about.

Mrs Filch had been petrified and hung from the ceiling. On the wall behind her was written in what looked like blood -though she doubted it actually was- 'Enemies of the heir beware, The Chamber of Secrets has been opened'. Anna shuffled her feet uncomfortably -absent-mindedly noticing that her shoes were getting wet from the inside out- unable to rip her eyes from the message. Again the nagging feeling in the back of her head appeared and she swallowed nervously.

Dimly she registered Draco saying "You'll be next, Mudbloods." But then they were all ushered away by the teachers.

Anna walked to the common room in a daze, her mind working a thousand miles an hour and by the time they had sat down at their usual spot by the windows she knew what she had to do.

"Draco, Pansy, Blaise." Her voice was soft but it immediately drew their and the rest of their friends' attention. "Find out all you can about the Chamber of Secrets for me."

At their nods she got up and walked to her bedroom. She knew there was someone following her but only when she stood in front of her door did that someone speak up.

"What are you worried about?" Theo asked.

"I'm not worried. I'm excited." She didn't know if that was true, she hoped it was.