The Flower and the Badger

Chapter 20

The next morning Ron was telling Anna about their visit with Hagrid. They had questioned him about the mystery package and he had revealed a name: Nicolas Flamel. Anna had no clue who Nicolas Flamel was, but they were all determined to find out.

Just like George had said, Draco had snitched on Anna to Snape, who had given her three Saturdays worth of detentions.
"You shouldn't have attacked Draco like that." Hermione scolded her after her first detention of cleaning potion vials and scrubbing out cauldrons. "You don't know what he was saying Hermione!" Anna said as they walked out of the library where they had been studying. True to her word, McGonagall had placed Anna in the same Transfiguration class as the second years. "The things that he was saying about my parents-"
"That doesn't matter!" Hermione stopped walking to look at Anna. "You can't let your anger cloud your judgement-"
"Don't let my anger cloud my judgement?" Anna was thoroughly pissed off now. "Well, I'd like to see how you would react if Malfoy told you that your parents had never cared about you."
"Anna-"
But Anna had walked off, leaving a guilt-ridden Hermione behind.

This had been the girls first fight. For a solid week Anna refused to talk to Hermione, forcing Harry and Ron to take sides in the matter. Harry agreed with Hermione, saying that Anna could have handled things a bit more rationally. Ron, on the other hand, agreed whole-heartedly with Anna, saying that Malfoy deserved worse than a few punches.
"You'll have to talk to her again sometime." Cedric said to Anna. Ever since their fight, Cedric had become Anna's new study buddy. The rumours about them had finally started to decrease, although that may have been because he was now openly dating a third year Ravenclaw named Lucy Quinn. Only problem was, Lucy seemed to hate Anna for some reason, and Anna couldn't figure out why. But she had bigger things to worry about. "Or I could just continue to ignore her like ice been doing for the past week." Anna answered as she studied about the Mermaid Wars.
"Anna, she's your best friend, don't throw your friendship away just because of an argument."
Anna groaned quietly so as not to invoke the wrath of the librarian, Madame Pince. "Damn you and your words of wisdom, Diggory. Are you sure that you're not secretly a Ravenclaw?"
Cedric chuckled softly. "You never know. So are you gonna talk to her?"
Anna nodded as she gathered her things and placed them in her bag. "Yeah, I think that I owe her an apology for how I've been acting."

Anna found Hermione in the common room. Before she could get a word out, however, Hermione launched herself at Anna, hugging her tightly and sobbing into her shoulder. Anna patted her back awkwardly as the other Gryffindors shuffled uncomfortably in their seats. "I'm sorry!" Hermione wailed. "I didn't mean to get you mad!"
"I know..." Anna murmured. "I'm sorry too, I overreacted. Can you forgive me?"
"Of course." Hermione smiled at her. "I'm just glad that we're friends again." Anna nodded, feeling like a great weight had been taken off of her shoulders. "Much as I like hanging out with Cedric, he can get to be pretty annoying."
Hermione giggled softly. "I can see that. I'm surprised that Lucy lets you two hang out as much as you do."
"Don't get me started on that girl." Anna groaned. "I have no idea why she hates me so much."
"Maybe she feels threatened by your friendship with Cedric."
"But Cedric is like an older brother to me! I've made that abundantly clear to her multiple times!"
"That won't stop her from being jealous. Be careful with her Anna."
Anna sighed softly. Why did it feel like everyone was out to get her? If it wasn't Pansy or Draco, it was someone else with some sort of vendetta against her. Not all of the Slytherins were bad though. Anna had talked multiple times with Blaise Zabini. He was cocky and arrogant for sure, but nowhere near as bad as Draco. Anna considered Blaise to be a friend, much to the dismay of Ron, who insisted that no Slytherin was to be trusted. "You can't trust any of them, Anna, no matter how charming they seem to be."
Anna had rolled her eyes at this. Ron was starting to feel more and more like an older brother. It was sweet, but definitely got on her nerves at times. She hoped that he realized that she was at least somewhat capable of handling herself. She wasn't completely defenseless. And one day in the middle of November she proved that to everyone.

Classes had gone splendidly, she had even done well in Potions that day, a rare occurrence for her. Then Marcus Flint had, of course, decided that he had to try and make the rest of Anna's day miserable. Marcus had had it out for her ever since the day she had slugged Draco out on the Quidditch pitch. "If it isn't the itsy-bitsy Potter."
"Go away Marcus." Anna was with Neville, they had just come out of one of the Herbology greenhouses. Neville had forgotten one of his books and Anna, not wanting anyone to give him any trouble, had decided that she would accompany him.
"What're you gonna do about it?" Marcus sneered. "You won't do anything, not unless you want detention with Snape again."
"Anna..." Neville tugged on her sleeve. "Let's just get out of here."
"Aw, is the little one scared?" Marcus laughed. "Can't wait to see what you'll do after we're done with Weaselbee."
Anna whirled to face Marcus. "If you touch one hair on Ron's head-"
"Oh, it's not Ron that I'm talking about. Surely you know that twins don't always travel in pairs. It would be a shame if something happened to Freddie boy-" Whack! Anna had backhanded him so hard that his cheek was a bright red. "Don't you dare threaten my friends." Anna growled at him. "Do it again and I'll hex you into next year. Come on, Neville." She stalked away, Neville taking off after her. She had to make sure that Fred was all right.

Anna had found Fred just in the nick of time. He and George had been seperated; they had pulled a prank on Filch and had been forced to split up. He was now cornered by three or four Slytherins, who had obviously been waiting for this opportunity. Maybe Ron had had a point about them. "Incarcerous!" Anna pointed her wand, binding one of them in ropes. The other three turned to face her. "Stupefy!" One of them yelled, and Anna rolled out of the way of the incoming spell.
"Rictusempra!" Fred shouted, and another of his attackers doubled over with laughter. The remaining two then ran off. Neville, who had been watching the entire duel with wide eyes, gaped at his fellow Gryffindors. Anna checked Fred over for injuries. "I'm fine." He insisted. "Don't worry Anna, I'm not hurt. You, however, could use a bandage or two." He gestured to her knee, which was scraped. It must have happened when she had ducked out of the way of the Stupefy spell. Fred helped Anna to the hospital wing, where Pomfrey had patched her up after lecturing her about always getting herself hurt. After she was released she walked back to Gryffindor Tower with Fred, where they witnessed Neville telling everyone about the duel.
"It was far less dramatic than you made it out to be, Nev." Anna said with a laugh.
"But you did get into a fight?" Hermione asked with narrowed eyes, and Anna sighed. "It was either that or let them beat Fred to a pulp."
"You saved my brother!" George cried dramatically. "Please accept a kiss as a token of my gratitude!"
"George, I would rather kiss Fang before I kiss you." Everyone laughed as George pretended to pout. "I'm not that undesirable!"
"Are too!" Angelina piped up, causing them all to laugh again. Anna smiled as she looked out at all the people that were currently gathered around her. They had all felt like friends before, but right now, in this moment, it was the first time that Anna had realized that they were something more. They were family.