In what had started out as a relatively uneventful Monday, a slow but electric start to the week after the first Quidditch game of the season between Hufflepuff and Gryffindor, Anthea felt as if people had been whispering around her the whole first half of the morning. With some people it felt almost expected, but others, it felt pointed. For example, a group of Hufflepuff girls in her first block in the morning: Charms; and a group of Gryffindors had been talking and gesturing at her during breakfast even earlier than that.
After that icy start to the day, Anthea took a slow walk to her second class: Defense Against the Dark Arts, opting for a longer route to the classroom. The whispers persisted as she thought about what could've happened, what she could have done over the last week?
Nothing jumped out at her immediately that could've been odd from her behavior, maybe she was being paranoid. Perhaps it was something Draco did. Her younger brother always found a chance to run his mouth, it was almost a compulsion for him. A compulsion that seemed to worsen now that he had been injured.
Anthea was a part of the last handful of students to settle into the classroom and confirming, in her mind, maybe this all wasn't in her head, a group of girls looked at her and snickered as she set her books down and shrugged off her thick robes with a sneer. She finally sat as Professor Lupin emerged from the office doorway, using a flick of magic to open the blinds in the room, making the dark room a little less grey.
"Good morning, all. Take your seats," he greeted, standing tall on the overhang, glancing up at the dragon skeleton overhead, "there will be no need for your wands today; books open to page–"
Anthea could hear them before she saw them– everyone could. The Weasley twins, talking amongst themselves very animatedly while entering the room.
Out of the corner of her eye, she watched a Gryffindor girl turn around to her friend at the table behind her and point at one of the twins before giggling again. Paying it no mind, she opened her book quietly to where they were in the week prior while learning about Ghouls.
"Sit down you two, then page eighty-seven in your books," Lupin continued, as he watched the boys bumble into the middle of the classroom as they dropped their tone down to quick whispers.
As they got next to what she had deemed her desk, one whispered, "just sit, I'll get you back later," while nearly pushing his twin onto the bench next to her.
Looking down, she noticed he actually plopped down on her cloak and started sliding the fabric back to her half of the wooden bench.
"Sorry about that," he muttered, opening his book as Lupin started speaking to the whole class again, "good morning."
With a sigh, she replied quietly, "morning."
Looking around the classroom, trying her hardest to listen to the professor, she wound up locking eyes with the other twin who had been turned almost all the way around, craning his neck to seemingly look at his brother. When he noticed they were looking at each other his eyes widened before he settled into his spot, ripping his eyes off of her and onto the book in front of him.
Anthea Malfoy now had a feeling this was his fault.
With only three days to the first game of the season, Fred had been dreading this moment as he walked down towards the Library to meet up with his current girlfriend to actually break up with her.
He hadn't meant to leave this task on his to-do list for so long but the schedule Oliver Wood had them running in preparation for his final year as captain left little time for his own escapades especially as it got closer to game day with a huge change in opponent.
His girlfriend, Maude Bradbury, was a really cool girl to know and be around when they started dating in the spring, but after missing out on a letter or two while his family was in Egypt over the summer she seemed almost overbearing. Even dropping in on them while having breakfast at the Leaky Cauldron right before coming back to Hogwarts.
It didn't help that after Professor Lupin had enough of him and his twin taking over class discussion, he decided the next time they had class that he'd split everyone up; every two-seater table had to have one person from Gryffindor and one from Slytherin.
Often being almost-late, Fred and George didn't get their prime seat picks and he was often late to the draw and had to sit next to Anthea Malfoy. She was alright, quiet but seemed uptight and never actually bothered to acknowledge his existence. She had one upside on her younger brother: if she had a problem with anyone, she didn't seem to announce it to anyone that would listen.
The grip on him from Maude seemed to tighten within the weeks of the new seating arrangement when a group of them had been chatting in the lounge in the Charms hallway, studying and whatnot, and George had said something about Fred "getting cozy with a Slytherin girl," followed quickly by Lee Jordan remarking about Anthea Malfoy.
From that day forward, for the last three weeks, Maude followed him to Defense as well as Transfiguration (which he also shared with the aforementioned Malfoy girl). He has told her a couple of times that he has never even spoken to Anthea and what George said was a joke and it would cool her down for a couple of days before she'd start back up again.
So now, it was the only time he had available to do this and he was dreading it. He really did like Maude, she was funny, cute, and was his Charms partner, but things could not keep going the way they had been.
"Freddy!" Maude exclaimed as she spotted him while leaving the library, a pair of her friends not far behind, "I was just telling Em and Nelly about our date last weekend at Hogsmeade."
"Oh?" He questioned, bringing his free hand up to scratch at the nape of his neck as she squeezed him around the middle, trapping his left arm at his side, "Is it alright if I steal her for a minute, ladies?"
The pair were giggling away in response, letting Maude be guided away by the Gryffindor boy.
The next they heard from their friend, she was red in the face crying about "that stupid, Slytherin slag."
Anthea listened as everyone slowly trickled into the common room for the night, waiting for one of her more personable friends to come down the stairs. Maybe they would know what's going on or could quell her watching more students file in, also giving her looks, she spotted Barbara who bee-lined for Anthea, knowing why she seemed so anxious. The shorter girl grabbed her hand and whisked her down the hall to the sixth-year dormitories.
There had only been four sixth-year Slytherin girls, Barb amongst them, the other girls were rarely in the actual dorms. Barbara Flanagan was a stout brunette girl in the year above Anthea's and she seemed to know everything when it came to gossip around Hogwarts. Anthea could never place her finger on how exactly but it seemed to boil down to Barbara simply being cooler and more approachable than her (and although the Slytherin reputation, coupled with parents that had dubious morals, she also was not a Malfoy).
"How was your day?" Barbara asked, sitting Anthea down on her bed, knowing what she was going to say.
Anthea sighed, "alright. I suppose."
"You sure?"
"I mean– I don't know. I feel like everyone is talking about me or knows something I don't. It makes me want to pitch myself off the clock tower."
"There it is," Barb mumbled, standing over the small basin, getting ready to wash her face.
"What have you heard?"
"What do you know about Fred Weasley?"
Anthea's face scrunched up in confusion, "one of the twins? Would not be able to tell him apart from George in a thousand years, so nothing."
Barb scrubbed her face, eyeing the girl on the bed who had now resorted to picking at her already irritated cuticles.
"Those two were acting shifty during Lupin's class today, but it is them so I tried not to think too much of it."
Reaching for a towel to dry her now-clean face, the older girl spoke up again. "Apparently," she stressed, "apparently Fred Weasley broke up with his girlfriend for you because allegedly the two of you have been sneaking around since at least early last month."
Anthea had been stunned into silence and stillness, she was hoping to hear that everything was alright on her front and she was just being paranoid.
The silence was just a tad too long as Barb sat beside her younger friend, "Everything alright?"
Anthea slowly nodded, her face somehow paling even more than normal, "mm-hmm."
"Sure?"
With a deep breath, she muttered, "No way that's true. I've never spoken to him. In a meaningful way. Someone's lying or I will be dealing with those twins, alright?"
Two mornings later, Fred and Geroge had finally gotten to Defense Against the Dark Arts early (for them) to take their spots. They were hoping to dodge sitting beside Anthea, who no doubt finally caught wind of what was being said about her by Maude and her group of Hufflepuff friends, judging solely by the death glare she had given the pair just an hour ago during breakfast. That was the most emotion she had ever shown either twin in their time going to school together.
This time it was Anthea who was late, walking in grumbling to her friend and housemate Marjorie Bonham when she stopped in place upon seeing her desk occupied by Lee Jordan and Cassius Warrington. With a roll of her eyes, she quickly settled in beside Angelina Johnson, who would hopefully debrief the twins and Lee later on during the lunch period.
Those two, Anthea and Angelina, were an odd pair to see together, talking up a storm over the discussion period after Lupin's instruction.
After class had finished, the twins beat everyone over to the Great Hall and as Angelina approached the table, Fred asked, "what'd you two talk about?"
"Nothing," she replied, sitting down between George and Oliver Wood who was still absolutely distraught after what happened over the weekend. "Although, she does want you to meet her in the library tonight."
"What– why?" He sputtered out. "Just me?"
"I mean, you are the one who allegedly broke up with his girlfriend for her. So, yeah, just you."
Fred quietly entered the library, seeing a few students peddling about, none of them the person he was currently seeking out.
Keeping a slow pace down the book-ended corridor, he went by a group of Hufflepuffs. He gave a polite wave and their conversation halted as they all shot him individual glares. Loyal bunch, should've expected that.
"Psst, Weasley."
With a quick look above, he spotted a head of white blond hair.
"Up here."
Halfway up the spiral staircase, he finally got a bad feeling that, quite honestly, he could've used before. Maybe he should have brought George. After all, this was a Slytherin– a Malfoy, and a clearly unhappy one at that.
Wiping his hands on his trousers, he finished ascending the seemingly endless staircase and spotted Anthea sitting at the end of the first row of bookcases.
"Surprised your brother isn't with you," she spoke, voice softer than he thought it would be, "although I'm not sure if you're even the twin I'm needing an explanation from."
"Well, I am the more handsome one. Clearly, I'm Fred," he joked, stepping into the row.
She let out a small laugh before standing up to her full height, "Alright, Fred, I understand that you and George have a knack for jokes, so I'd love to know what you did to a particular Hufflepuff. Because honestly, I'm not liking what I've heard so I wanted to give you a chance to explain."
"What have you heard?"
"I'm not repeating it."
Fred sighed, rubbing a hand over his face, "You know Maude Bradbury? From Hufflepuff?"
"No."
"Great, okay. Well, I was dating her since the spring, everything was going great, then I missed an owl or two and all of a sudden she refuses to leave my side. Then last week I broke up with her. She was sweet and all but—."
"Okay so where does the rumour come in…?"
"Which rumour?"
Anthea took a menacing step forward and it was then Fred realized how tall she actually was. Had they gotten any closer, the top of her head would maybe reach his brow.
"The rumour that you broke up with Hufflepuff Mel for me."
"Her name is Maude."
"Okay… not the point."
Another quick sigh, Fred looked the Malfoy girl in the eyes, "I didn't break up with Maude for you. She just took a joke the wrong way."
"A joke."
"Yeah, Lee said something about me 'getting cozy with a Slytherin girl in Lupin's class' and she jumped to conclusions."
With a roll of her eyes, she muttered something under her breath, "Well, could you explain–"
"I did already."
"Do it again, because she just got me a week of detention with Snape after she slipped something into my potion."
"I can try but–"
"No. You'll do it and make sure she gets it or I'll slip something into one of your meals, Weasley."