This took so long! I'm sorry! But fifth year is almost done, only one or two more chapters.
Also, just so I know, is there anyone you would like me to save from death or anyone you'd like me to kill.? I haven't made my mind yet, but there's a couple of people that I know are going to die and/or live.
Enjoy and please review!
Pansy's blue eyes roamed down the parchment in her hands, legs crossed and leaned back in the armchair she was sitting on. It was late, she was tired, but this was something she had to do. Every one of her friends was already studying for their OWLs while simultaneously keeping an eye on and managing their part of the... backstabbing? Revolution? Whatever it was. Revenge for being taken for imbeciles, she supposed.
Each one of them had their own part, clearly. Pansy was actually in charge of public opinion, she was responsible for the school's improved opinion and trust of their house, she kept an eye on what was published in the Daily Prophet and had made substantial progress throughout the year in getting a say in exactly what they published. Blaise was good at getting dirt on people and she knew just how to use it. It was the sort of influence that she would be able to keep after the war, she hoped, if she made it out.
"You even got the Creevey brothers and Dean Thomas." Pansy looked up at the twins, who'd been lounging on a couch in front of her while she checked the names. "We'd been having quite a hard time convincing them."
George shrugged from his spot halfway on top of his brother. "Dennis was scared and Colin was being stubborn. Dean just hadn't trusted whoever it was that'd approached him. Carl, was it?" He looked at Fred for confirmation. "Yeah. But once we did it he was in. He's got two muggle step-sisters to worry about, you know?"
She nodded. "I do." Then she proceeded to roll up the parchment again and pass it to Greg, who was sitting close by, so he'd put it in her handbag. "But now you're done. It's time to start the preparations in Diagon Alley, both for your shop and... for this."
The twins looked at each other sideways, silently discussing something that Pansy just knew she wasn't going to like. Slowly, they sat up, Fred leaning forwards with his elbows on his knees and George crossing his arms and placing his right ankle on his left knee.
"Actually, Parkinson, we were wondering..." Fred trailed off a bit, looking her up and down while he figured out how to phrase whatever he was about to say.
Pansy watched him with slightly raised eyebrows. She gave him time though, letting him study her while she smoothed down her dress and made sure her necklace was straight. Not faltering under either of their gazes, she uncrossed her legs and crossed them again the other way around, stretching her ankles a bit as they were starting to feel a bit stiff in her heels.
The only reason she was in charge of the contact with Fred and George was that Blaise was too forceful, too controlling, for these two. It'd never work. Daphne was too busy with everything else, Draco would rather harbour muggleborns in his own bedroom than interact with these two any more than was necessary and Theo... well, Pansy had the distinct impression that Anna was making Theo jealous in order to keep him away from them. Why, she didn't know, but the Lestrange never did something without a reason. So here Pansy was. To be completely honest, it could be worse. The twins weren't all that bad. Not that she'd ever admit it.
"We want to stay here a bit longer." Fred continued, voice firm. "We know that the plan was to sneak out once it was done, the day after reporting, and to leave a note but we don't think that's a good idea."
Pansy looked at him impassively for a second. "Go on."
"It's just... it's not like us to leave all sneakily like that. We can contact the owner of the shop we want to rent and pay for the next couple of months in advance. Once that's done we'll send all our belongings to the shop so it's all there once we leave but- we can't leave yet." George explained. "There's something we need to do next Monday. In fact, you should know about it, or rather, Anna should know about it."
"What is it?" Pansy frowned a bit.
"We're helping Harry break into Umbridge's office. We're doing the distraction." Fred smirked.
She pinched the bridge off her nose and sighed, taking a second to recalibrate. "Alright then. I'll make sure that nobody catches him and that nobody catches you." Her eyes narrowed at them. "But you'll be getting that shop rented and sending all your things this weekend so you can leave immediately after the distraction. Umbridge will chase you, the Inquisitorial Squad will fail to catch you. Summon your brooms, she hasn't put anti-summoning charms on them yet."
The two saluted her, slight smiles on their faces. They'd been having much less trouble getting along with her lately. It probably had a lot to do with the fact that as time went on they'd gotten used to each other, they'd learned ho to read one another. They no longer though she was a stuck up bitch, just stuck up, and she didn't think they reckless imbeciles, just reckless.
"You don't want to know why Harry wants to break in?" Fred asked.
"Not really. If Anna wants to know she'll have me ask you. Or she'll ask you herself." She pursed her lips. "We'll relay the change of plans to Marcus, be ready to have him drop by your first night at the shop."
George groaned and let his head fall back on the couch while Fred, grimacing, stood and pulled him up with him. "Yeah, we'll get things smoothed over with the git. You'll get us the lists of all the people we'll be hiding as soon as we get there, I suppose? If not to us then to him."
She hummed.
Then, for a second, Fred seemed to hesitate before extending a hand to help her up as well. Pansy blinked, bewildered for a second, then she accepted it and let him assist her in getting to her feet. His hand was bigger than hers, skin rougher and dryer, and she let go as soon as she was standing, even if she didn't stop looking up at him curiously. Maybe there were a few manners hidden under that mop of hair after all. Whatever his opinions might been on the strange burst of chivalry was carefully hidden and she saw no trace of it in his eyes. He was learning, then.
"Here-" She said, finally looking away from him and reaching for her purse. From inside it she pulled a wooden cylinder, runes carved at both edges. "If you write a message down and pass it through this side-" She pointed. "It'll come out the other end of Anna's. Likewise, if she wants to pass you a message it'll come out this way." She pointed at the other end before passing it over to Fred.
He took it from her, turning away slightly to study it with his brother.
"Did she make it?" George asked.
Pansy shook her head. "No. The Greengrass family's developers -the ones making products for Magical Green- invented these. Daphne's parents haven't put it on the market yet and they won't do so until things settle down. Better economic state. We've got a couple, but try not to break it and definitely don't lose it. They're sensitive around heat so don't put it near a cauldron and if they fall the spells become less effective due to the impact, so be careful."
"Got it." The younger nodded and pocketed it. "We'll see you around then."
Pansy nodded and watched as they walked out of the Room of Requirement. George didn't look back but Fred did, nodding at her before closing the door after himself. For a few minutes she stood there and did nothing, running through what she'd tell Anna on her way back in her mind, before turning to Greg. He hadn't said a word the whole meeting but she knew he'd been watching everything carefully. Now he gave her a pointed look.
"What?" She asked.
"You're giving them too much leeway." Greg muttered. "Someone could find out about who they work for while they're here. Draco says that the more time they spend here, the more risk we run."
Pansy sighed. "They have a point though. Them vanishing in the middle of the night would attract more attention, even if they left a note of explanation. It's not... them."
Greg shrugged, getting to his feet. "You'd know best, I suppose. You've been working with them the most."
Anna clenched her hands on her skirt as her jaw tightened. Out of the corner of her eyes she could tell that Severus was giving her a borderline amused look, borderline, because Anna losing her temper on Umbridge was the last thing they needed. She didn't take her eyes off the woman, though, who was busy trying to find something in her perfect school record to make sure that she could dismiss Anna wanting to be an Unspeakable. She had perfect marks though, not perfect attendance since she skipped class whenever she wanted, all teachers except MacGonagall not really caring wether she showed up or not, but attendance wasn't all that important. Not if it was pardoned by the school matron. It was unfair, but she wasn't about to complain.
It'd taken a while for Anna to find something she wanted to do. The thing was that while she was interested in reading about most things, she didn't want to do most of those things for the rest of her life. Being an Unspeakable was the only thing she'd found acceptable until now, or maybe she'd become Minister for Magic at some point. She didn't know yet, she was too focussed in getting everyone out of this shit storm alive. But being in charge was something that came naturally to her so having something to say about the way the magical people saw magic itself -as an Unspeakable- or about the way her country was run -as the Minister- was something that seemed to her to be one of the most appropriate jobs for her. Not that the public opinion would be in her favour enough to actually become Minister for Magic.
Not that she could say what she actually thought around Umbridge, so Unspeakable was what she'd claimed she found most intriguing. It was true, but she found that having to think about 'the future' while there was so much else going on to be tedious. The only reason they had these career days was because they had to know which classes they should take after their OWLs and also which courses they didn't actually have to study too much for anymore.
"Is there anything you're looking for in particular, Headmistress?" Anna asked, eyes widening innocently. "I thought my marks were straight O's."
For a second Umbridge looked like she'd swallowed a lemon before putting up the fake smile that made Anna want to break something. "No, I mean yes they are, miss Connors, it's just-" She paused. "Do you really thing being an Unspeakable is something for you? It's very demanding, very selective. I was just wondering wether you had the aptitude for such a competitive-"
"Professor, do you think I have the aptitude for a selective career? Am I a pushover?" She asked Severus, doing her best to hide how much she was seething. It wasn't just that she detested Umbridge as a general rule, but having her question her intelligence and wether she knew how to make an effort was a bit more than enough. Even if it was a cover for worse objections. Anna knew for a fact that the woman had never questioned Draco's choice to be a healer, or Pansy's wish to be a reporter (rather, it was to monopolise the newspapers of magical Britain, but they'd all had a lengthy discussion about why that was wrong, not that it'd deterred Pansy at all), or Theo's choice to go into politics, Daphne taking over Magical Green or Blaise becoming an advocate. But no, the 'muggleborn' girl couldn't get the revered and selective job. Anna wasn't stupid enough to believe that it had anything to do with her personality or intelligence, but she went with it.
Severus, apparently sensing her irritation, started piling up the papers with the information on her before looking up calmly. "I believe you give in easily to those you care about, Anna, but otherwise I find you to be a competitive, possessive, and contrary child who will get whatever you want to get even if it kills you."
Anna almost frowned, but caught herself at the last second. "I see. That's quite honest." Too honest, really. He'd been her head of house for five years so obviously he knew her well enough to know these things about her, but saying anything of this caliber in front of Umbridge was clumsy. Too clumsy for Severus so he must have done it on purpose. Was he trying to make her shut up?
"Do you think I can become an Unspeakable then, Professor?"
"I believe you have quite a good chance, yes."
"Then that's what I'll do." She smiled.
"You'll need to take Potions, Ancient Runes, Arithmancy, Herbology, DADA, Transfiguration, Charms, History of Magic, Astronomy, and Care of Magical Creatures. In short, all the classes you're taking now." He noted the classes all down. "And in order to be allowed to enter the Unspeakable training course of the Ministry you'll need to have an average of Outstanding in each of them."
"No problem." Yes problem, but she'd handle it.
If Umbridge had looked like she'd swallowed a lemon before, now she'd swallowed a basketful of them.
If Theo was being completely honest, he didn't see why the girls were babying the twins. They were perfectly capable of handling themselves, it was just that they didn't have the same secretive efficiency as the Slytherins. And so Anna and Pansy ended up giving them all sorts of space to do whatever they wanted and it led all of them to running risks they wouldn't otherwise have run.
Then again, Theo understood the unwillingness to force the twins into doing something they didn't want to do any more than they already had. There was something about forcing morally upright allies to do morally questionable or wrong things that made all of them do a double take. So here he was, sitting on the railing of one of the stairs overlooking the large hall surrounded by staircases in which Fred and George had been 'cornered'. Of course, the members of the Inquisitorial Squad had all been instructed not to hurt them, not that they would have wanted to. In fact, they all had looked rather impressed at the gooey, sticky swamp the twins had conjured up. Pansy and Draco were carefully monitoring wether or not any Slytherins actually hit the twins, though the ones that were present had been specifically chosen for their obedience towards Anna and the fact that they wouldn't question her choice to help the twins, so there really wasn't any danger of them getting hurt. Though Pansy was unnecessarily keeping a tighter leash on them than Draco was, funnily enough.
She must feel more responsible for them, Theo supposed. She was their handler after all.
He hummed noncommittally, and turned back down to the parchment in his hands. The Marauders' Map had been entrusted to him that day -to Anna actually but she'd just shoved it at him and said she was too busy to monitor Potter's monitoring. So here he was, making sure that Blaise's spies kept their distance from the boy that was breaking into the Headmistress' office. It wouldn't do for them to be seen.
"Mr Filch!" Umbridge's shrill voice sounded over the students' loud clamouring, causing Theo to look back up. "You may get the approval for whipping from the top shelf of the cabinet in my office."
Theo hissed in alarm, his eyes snapping to Draco and Pansy who had turned to stare at him for instruction. He motioned for them to stay calm and where they were before jumping away from the railing and running to Umbridge's office. He'd have to take a detour in order to not get spotted and he couldn't very well warn Potter himself. But he knew exactly where each of the spies were so while it would be a close shave, they would be able to get him out in time.
After only a few seconds of running up and down corridors, he crashed into a sixth year Ravenclaw that had been hiding in a corner two halls away from the office. Theo didn't know his name but it didn't matter. Without waiting for his acknowledgement he grabbed the older boy's arm in a tight grip.
"Get him out. Now." He hissed.
The poor boy's eyes widened and he nodded, starting to run down a hallway to the side. Theo watched through the windows as he reappeared in a hall across from the one he was in. Dimly, he could hear Filch approaching even as he saw the boy knock on the door to Umbridge's office and run away again. It would be suspicious, really, It'd make the fact that someone was watching him obvious, but nothing else could be done. Better that kid than him. He could see a few other students skittering out of hiding places and running after him just before the door to the office opened and closed again.
Good. He'd been preparing himself to curse Filch. It'd be unwise, moronic more like, but he'd do it if he had to.
Theo flattened himself against the wall so Potter wouldn't see him. The Gryffindor was under his Invisibility Cloak so he wouldn't actually know if Potter saw him or not, but oh well. It'd be a catastrophe if he did. Not only would he know he was being watched, he'd know Theo had something to do with it. Not only was Theo intrinsically linked to Voldemort through his father, but it was also common knowledge that anything with Theo was something with Anna.
After waiting for a few seconds he started running again. By the time he got back to his original spot, Draco and Pansy were already looking for him from their spots by the Squad and Umbridge was already speaking. He just nodded to let them know it'd been handled before tuning in to the conversation at hand.
"So!" The Headmistress was saying, staring down at the cornered twins with bulging eyes. "So you think it amusing to turn a school corridor into a swamp, do you?"
"Pretty amusing, yeah." Fred answered confidently, making Theo roll his eyes. They really got on his nerves.
Less than a second later Filch could be heard approaching, shoving students out of the way as he got closer. "Headmistress! I've got the form. I've got the form and I've got the whips-"
"Very good Argus." She answered before looking back down. "You two are about to learn what happens to wrongdoers in my school."
"You know what?" Fred called back up cockily, face suspiciously not facing Umbridge but rather Pansy for a few seconds. "I don't think we are."
Then he turned back to his twin. "George, I think we've outgrown full-time education."
"Yeah, I've been feeling that myself." George answered lightly.
"Time to test our talents in the real world, d'you reckon?"
"Definitely."
Before Umbridge could say another word, they raised their wands and called out in unison: "Accio brooms!"
In the distance there was a loud crash and a bunch of students were forced to duck as a pair of broomsticks flew too close to their heads for comfort. One of the brooms was even still trailing a heavy chain with an iron peg at the end, presumably the artefacts with which Umbridge had tried to secure them. But chaos had broken loose not only amongst the students in danger of losing their heads to the broomsticks. The Headmistress had started screaming at the Inquisitorial Squad to get the twins, and they had obeyed. The only problem was that none of the spells even got close to their apparent targets. Fred and George had no difficulty in catching their brooms, hopping on, doing a couple of laps in the air and saluting Umbridge before flying out of the castle and over the forest, even through the storm of spells, charms, curses and hexes that was whirled at them.
Uninterested in the rest of the proceedings, Theo turned away from the cheering, shouting and screaming students and headed towards the Common Room, where he found Daphne and Blaise sitting in their usual spots. Anna wasn't there but at his questioning look the blonde girl only pointed towards the corridors of the dormitories.
He frowned. Anna had stormed in there that afternoon, fuming about her Career Advise meeting, and proclaimed that if she didn't lock herself in she would find some way or another to get Umbridge killed or severely wounded. And that would ruin quite a lot of plans and thereby also lives. She couldn't hurt the woman just yet.
It took just one knock for the door to Anna's room to open, revealing the girl. At the sight of him she grinned and pulled him inside.
Draco let out a deep breath as he closed the door to Umbridge's office behind him. Then he stayed leaning against the polished wood for a few seconds, eyes closed as he tried to calm himself down, before looking back up. He never showed how much getting yelled at bothered him. Never let his hands shake, never let himself fight or swallow too visibly, never let his face crack, his eyes water or did anything else that might give away just how much he wished to crawl away every time someone raised their voice at him. Draco wasn't fragile, not really, but that was the one thing that could and would break him one day.
The Prefect swallowed again, feeling the tension and stinging anxiety drain away slowly. With one hand running through his platinum hair to smooth it down he faced Graham and Vince, who'd been waiting for him as he was shouted at. He wasn't going to mention that part to Anna, the woman was in enough danger of being killed in her sleep as it was without triggering his cousin's protective streak. He was thankful to his cousin for everything she did for him and he loved her with all his heart, so he wasn't about to make her ruin everything because he couldn't take some shouting at.
"You alright, Draco?" Vince muttered, tilting his head to make himself look more curious than he really was. The larger boy may not have been the brightest penny in the jar, but he knew his friends well.
"Just dandy, Vince." Draco bit out maybe more roughly than was appropriate. "I spent the last half hour being shouted at by that lying filth, of course I'm perfectly fine."
"Boohoo, Malfoy, suck it up." Graham snorted. "We're doing all the grunt work, you might as well take responsibility for it. You're the one that's the safest here."
"How am I the safest?" Draco retorted as they started making their way to the Great Hall. Truth be told, as much as he might respect Graham Draco harboured a carefully hidden dislike for him. He'd known Draco for years, he knew how much these situations unbalanced him, and yet he'd never thought twice about getting in his face and shouting at him. Never hesitated to fail to take this knowledge into consideration and take advantage of it. He didn't do it anymore, not with everyone telling Anna everything, but the disdain was still there.
"We're the ones making sure that Filch doesn't catch anyone. We help the troublemakers get away and make sure that the ones that are caught don't actually have to do anything in detention." The Quidditch captain started ticking off fingers. "We facilitate them, we've helped them sabotage almost the whole castle under the pretence of trying to catch them. If we're found out, you can always claim you had no knowledge of it."
"Yes, well, I just got shouted at for half an hour because we let a second Niffler enter her office." Draco sniffed. "As much as I might enjoy seeing those appalling kitten plates smashed, the yelling does grate on my nerves. It's the fourth time this week that she finds something to scream at me about, me and Pansy that is but still mostly me."
"Tell Anna." Vince piped up. "She'll make it stop."
"Oh yes, definitely." Graham snorted. "She'll stop it by bathing the Great Hall in Umbridge's blood. No, Malfoy made the right call. Anna's good at a lot of things but not at handling anyone hurting her baby cousin, or even upsetting him for that matter."
"I'll have you know that I am the older cousin." Draco huffed. "But that's not the point. The point is, Graham, that if you have any complaints about the risks you take I'll be happy to take them to Anna. I'm sure we can find something else for you to do."
The Montague heir scowled for a second before wiping the expression away once more. It was common knowledge that he had few skills to offer, and while Anna wasn't going to leave him hanging he would definitely lose a lot of the perks he was enjoying by being this close to her. One word from Draco and he'd find himself running more risks than he was comfortable with.
"It's fine." He snapped.
"Of course it is." The Malfoy drawled.
The rest of the journey was spent in silence, Draco still trying to calm down completely, Graham wallowing in his hurt ego, and Vincent never did any talking without being talked to anyway. The halls were moderately crowded, what with the last groups of students beginning their trek to dinner, but most of them still moved out of the way when they saw the three Slytherins coming. That had everything to do with the fact Draco was with them. The other houses were under the impression that the Inquisitorial Squad was under his command and so that the only reason they were helping all the students get away with torturing Umbridge so easily was because he allowed it. Even if the other snakes wanted to help them, they wouldn't do it without him telling them to. It was worse to piss off the prince of their house than to piss off a Headmistress that couldn't even get into the actual office.
Within a few minutes they'd arrived at the Slytherin table. For a second Draco considered his options, before striding over to where Anna and Theo were cuddled up together while Vince and Graham searched for their own seats. Without taking a moment to second guess himself he tapped Theo's shoulder and made a shooing motion once the other boy had turned around.
"Move." Draco requested. "I need to talk to Anna."
For a second Theo glared at him before looking to his girlfriend for instruction. Anna, in turn, shrugged so he made space beside her. Draco sat down and poured himself a goblet of pumpkin juice, taking a sip to wet his dry mouth. In the meantime, Anna had reached out and started running her fingers through the locks of hair behind his ear. He then turned to her, expression as warm as always, and took her hand in his.
"Umbridge is very angry. There's been another Niffler attack in her office." He told her, voice low enough to only be heard by her and their friends. "She's under the impression that Hagrid's been sneaking them in under the Squad's noses. It won't be long before she sends him away, and it'll be uglier than with Trelawney."
"You're sure?" Anna frowned.
"She's being irrational. There's really no way it could be Hagrid. Besides the obvious fact that we already know it isn't him, he just doesn't have the skill to do it as secretly as it was done." Draco rolled his eyes. "But she hates him for his giant blood and now this... She doesn't just look down on him, metaphorically speaking, like with Trelawney. She downright hates him."
Anna sighed and closed her eyes for a second before opening them again and giving him a resigned look. "Well, we can't stop her from sacking him, but we can try to minimise the damage. Keep me posted. What we'll do with a giant living in the forest without human supervision is beyond me."
A) Give the incantation and b) describe the wand movement required to make objects fly.
Anna raised her eyebrows as she scanned through all the questions on the test paper. None of it was particularly difficult, some of the questions they asked were trick questions, the easy answer was wrong. She had prepared well though, there wasn't anything that she doubted the answer to. It'd been a group effort. Weeks ago, the whole of fifth year had set up camp in a corner of the Common Room and proceeded to drag each other through reviewing every single single note each of them had taken.
Two hours later she walked out of the Great Hall, Pansy and Daphne each hanging off one of her arms. The blonde was complaining about having Charms and Transfiguration one after the other, they were both classes she found hard. Rather, the theoretical work of Charms and the practical work of Transfiguration. Anna had helped her as much as she could, but it was tricky to explain something that came as naturally to her as doing magic did. She knew it was unfair; her grip on her magic was stronger and more instinctual due to there not being a barrier between her magic and her mind for best part of fourteen years.
Lunch was a quiet affair, fifth and seventh years exuding enough tension and exhaustion simultaneously to bring down the mood of the rest of the students. It was over all too quickly and then Anna and her year mates were rushed back out in order to wait for their turns to do their practical exam. She wasn't nervous about any exam other than Arithmancy, that one was tricky and she hadn't spent much time on it as of yet. But it'd be fine, for now she was going to focus on helping her friends do the best they could. If she had to help them study for themselves during the day and study for herself during the night then that was what she would do.
It had nothing to do with the fact that she was having difficulty sleeping through the pressure that the Dark Lord was putting on the mental bond, which he thought ran only between him and Harry. Even when she could sleep, she wasn't really inclined to do it. Anna had always been annoyed by the tendency she had to feel guilty for what happened to Harry. It was mostly a befitting sense of guilt, seeing as she was mostly responsible for what happened to him, but even now, when she was not in control of anything, she got a bitter taste in her mouth whenever she thought about it. Which was always, if she wasn't occupied with something else.
And so it was that she made it through most of the two weeks of exams. She got up, had breakfast, did the theoretical exam, had lunch, did the practical exam, went back to help her friends review for the next day and ran things in the castle while they were busy, had dinner, did her own studying, and went to sleep. Only to get up and repeat it four or five hours later. She was tired but she made the effort to keep up with everything and maintain her perfect mark record. If she made it out of the war alive, she would prefer to have completed her education enough to do whatever she wanted do. It was stressful, it was hard and exhausting, but she made it without having any major setbacks. Until the second Wednesday.
Anna had made it just fine through Arithmancy, even if she had had to puzzle out a lot of answers and even had her doubts about a couple. No, the problem was the second OWL that took place that same day. She would be the first to admit that she found Astronomy to be tedious. It was interesting and all, but what they had in class was only the position of planets, stars, constellations and such. There was no real depth in what they had to study, which was why halfway through the practical exam she found herself drifting off into her own thoughts. Something which she's tried to avoid for the last week and a half.
Suddenly, in the silence a distant roar was heard from the grounds. Anna jumped, immediately turning to watch what was happening. Around her, a few other students did as well, but they turned back to their exams hurriedly as Professor Tofty called them back. Her gaze didn't waver, eyes fixed on Hagrid's cabin which was surrounded by six figures. One of them was clearly Umbridge. Draco hadn't told her about this, Umbridge hadn't mentioned it to him. That didn't change the fact that the groundskeeper was being attacked in his own home.
"Ahem, twenty minutes to go." Professor Tofty's voice sounded beside her and Anna turned to look at him.
Then she looked back down to her star chart. It was almost completed, though she still missed a few stars in the Cygnus and the Perseus constellations. She could fill them in in twenty minutes, but she also wanted to keep an eye on what was happening by Hagrid's cabin. Whatever was happening there was her business. It was something she had not been aware of, but it was something she was responsible for anyway. Anna had brought Umbridge here, whatever that woman did was on her. That included doing permanent damage to the large but ultimately innocent Care of Magical Creatures Professor.
Making up her mind, she hurriedly finished her maternal grandfather's constellation, only to jump at another loud bang from from the grounds. This time, with her heart in her throat, she swivelled the telescope to look at the cabin so she could get a good look. The door to the cabin had been burst open, bathing the grounds in light so that they all could clearly see the way all six of the people around Hagrid were trying to stun him.
Somewhere beside Anna, Hermione cried in protest. "No!"
"My dear!" Professor Tofty retorted in a scandalised voice. "This is an examination!"
It was in vain, however, as none of the examinees were paying attention to their charts anymore. Cries and yells could be heard from the fight as none of the stunners used seemed to have any effect on Hagrid, though they did make for a dramatic effect as they lit up the scene in red. Everything only became worse when Hagrid's dog -Fang, if Anna recalled correctly- jumped up to protect his owner and was stunned. The groundskeeper made a furious noise in response, he picked up the figure that had stunned his dog and threw him through the air. The man did not get back up.
"Look!" One of the Patil twins pointed to where a ray of light had appeared on the ground.
The front gate had burst open and a figure was rushing towards the commotion.
"Now, really!" Tofty called out. "Only sixteen minutes left, you know!"
Nobody paid him any attention, watching anxiously as the figure ran to the battle.
"How dare you!" It cried in Professor MacGonagall's voice. "How dare you!"
Through the darkness they could hear her voice echoing even as she got further and further away from them. She was more visible now, her silhouette lit up by the light still streaming from Hagrid's cabin. There was no way those figures couldn't tell who it was.
"Leave him alone! Alone, I say!" The teacher continued, waving her arms at the assailants. "On what grounds are you attacking him? He has done nothing to warrant such-"
She didn't get to finish the sentence and multiple students screamed in alarm. Four of the figures around the cabin had shot stunners at her and the Professor crumpled to the ground, glowing red with the potency of the spells for a few seconds before it died out. She didn't move and Anna felt herself still completely. It was a form of anger she rarely felt, anger which didn't make her tremble or hiss or seethe. She was calm as her eyes remained fixed on the old woman on the ground, even as everyone around her jumped up in outrage.
Professor Tofty had forgotten the examination completely and he was yelling down at the attackers, along with multiple students. They were all drowned out by Hagrid, whose anger seemed all consuming and made them lose their temper even more. His rage seemed contagious.
"Cowards!" He bellowed, making not only the students on the tower fall silent and watch but also many other people peek out of their windows. "Ruddy cowards! Have some of that- and that-"
To everyone's alarm and satisfaction, the normally peaceful teacher now started throwing punches left and right, sometimes even picking up some of the rubble to toss at the wizards left standing. Another two men were knocked out cold, and while the other three -amongst which was Umbridge- concerned themselves with finding shelter and pulling the downed men to safety he picked Fang's body up and swung it over his shoulder.
"Get him! Get him!" Umbridge was shrieking from behind some of the larger rocks surrounding the cabin. Though the two men that remained didn't move towards the fleeing half-giant. In fact, they backed up instead of going towards him and tried to pick up their colleagues. Hagrid turned and ran with his dog's stunned figure in his arms, not paying any mind to the last stunner that Umbridge sent after him. It missed.
There was a long silence in which Anna calmly watched as some professors rushed from the castle towards MacGonagall. It was broken when Tofty cleared his throat.
"Um... five minutes to go, everybody." He muttered.
Anna turned back to her chart and continued filling in Perseus. Her lines were steady and precise, but her mind was absent. Soon enough she was done and the time was up and her friends were rushing her down to the Common Room. She was too calm and eerily compliant as she sat down in a high backed armchair.
"Anna, I swear I didn't-"
"It's alright, Draco." She looked up at him steadily. "She clearly aimed to do this with outside sources. If I didn't hear anything from Marcus either then she must have handled things herself."
Then she stretched out a hand, studying her nails with careful attention even in the dim light. Anna was aware of her friends watching her, even of other house mates having quieted down to listen to her orders. She didn't feel like ordering anyone around, she wanted to be left alone with her -admittedly morbid- thoughts. It was past midnight and what was coming that very same day was doing nothing to calm down her anxiety or guilt.
"MacGonagall was the one that gave me my letter." Anna murmured before looking back up. "I'll handle it, today after History of Magic. We only need her for today, after that I'll put up with Dumbledore if it means I get to get rid of her. Go on with business as usual."
"Anna-"
"Go to bed." She cut Pansy off.
The others in the Common Room left without another word and Anna stayed behind, staring into the dark lake, alone with her violent thoughts.